Seizure of Power Resident Effect Part 1
by Vergil1989 the Crossover King
Summary: Alice, Jill, Claire, Chris, and Carlos become embroiled in interstellar events with enemies both new and old. The galaxy at large will never be the same as the horrors of the T-Virus follow them through a Cerberus experiment that ripped them out of their reality and put them in this one. Will they be able to hold the line or will they have to fight to survive? Rated M.
1. Ch 1 My name is Alice

_A/N Remember I said that I didn't plan to add anymore fanfics to my roster? Yeah….I lied lol. Seriously though, this will combine known elements from the movie franchise and the books that explain more in the way of history, character information, etc so not everything can be found in one source. At any rate, enjoy!_

_Definteily rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, heavy action scenes, strong language, and sexual content later although not sure how much later. ;D_

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**Ch 1. My Name Is Alice….**

"_I can get you the virus, but it comes at a price." She was standing in a graveyard not too far off from the mansion, talking to Lisa Addison about getting her a sample of the T-Virus so that her brother and his group could shut the corporation down for good._

_Fighting for their lives through the underground complex known as the Hive, she watched as one by one the soldiers that had been sent to investigate why the Red Queen had gone homicidal died due to the zombies running rampant through the research base._

"_I want him in the Nemesis Program." Major Cain demands, a voice that she knew all too well as he also orders the same men to subdue her. Considering he used to be her boss, it stood to reason she would. She had considered him a scumbag even before she realized just how evil the company she worked for truly was. "Assemble the team. We're reopening the Hive. I want to know what went on down there. Just do it."_

_Men in white hazmat suits surround Matt and take him away while more attack and try to subdue her at the same time, succeeding when one manages to inject her with a sedative in the side of her neck._

"_Do you remember your name?" Dr. Isaac asks and at the time she didn't, but it didn't take long for her to recall everything that had brought her to that point in her life. And it didn't bode well for the scientist employed by the Umbrella Corporation, or any of his staff for that matter._

"_**My name is Alice…and I remember everything."**_

Waking up with a start, Alice Abernathy groaned weakly as she rolled onto her side, feeling shaken but otherwise ok, glad the rest of her memories slash nightmares didn't include one particular scene in them this time. She had suffered more than any human had a right to suffer and had still remained sane by some miracle. She didn't hold any allusions that she didn't have a severe case of PTSD or something but she was able to function and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Even before the Umbrella Corporation had gotten their kicks experimenting on her, Alice had a well known reputation of being the best operative in the business. It was also partly due to her physical appearance that had gotten a few slanderous rumors about her fucking her way to the top in the Treasury Department that had forced her to change professions. The money helped but it was the fact she couldn't gain any advancements in her current job due to the fact she was a woman and the rumors about her that made Alice pissed enough to quit.

Screw them, she wanted to actually do something that challenged her and actually gave her the opportunities she had wanted, and working in Treasury wasn't working out for her. So she had quit, gone to Umbrella, and then got screwed in another way altogether.

Funny how things worked out like that.

Blue eyes in a smooth round face, Alice stood at an imposing five foot eight inches even without the combat boots she favored in the later days of the zombie apocalypse. Brunette hair that hung at her shoulders, and a wiry and lean, compact musculature were her defining features. She was the best and her body matched the example she had set in what felt like another life now. How true those words would prove to be.

Opening her eyes, she realized she wasn't in the water as she thought she'd be. In fact, she had no idea where she was as she coughed and shivered, feeling a phantom chill of being overtaken by the ocean's waves as Arcadia, the ship they had reached shortly after leaving Los Angeles, was devastated by Umbrella's armed troop transports that had flown in to destroy every survivor before they got wise and picked up arms against their former oppressors. She had been thrown into the water not too long after things started, but not before she had tried to take on Jill Valentine who had been brainwashed by Umbrella.

Looking around, Alice saw that she wasn't even on a planet anymore if the ball of fire outside her window was anything to go by. Was that a real star by chance? How in the Hell was that possible?! Where was she, what year was it, was this another of Umbrella's research bases?

"Ms. Abernathy, I bid you welcome." She jerked her head up and slowly stood to her feet, aware that she was still dressed in her old armor and clothing she had had as the slaughter had begun against them on Arcadia.

She was missing her shotguns and other weaponry though, which didn't immediately upset her given her unique….talents. Even before being experimented on, she had been rightfully called 'Ass Kicking Alice.' The thought made a ghost of a smile appear on her face as she met a holographic projection of a man in a suit of some kind, smoking a cigarette until he put it out in an ashtray that was part of the chair he was sitting in.

"Who are you and where am I?"

"All in good time Ms. Abernathy, former employee to the Umbrella Corporation, although that version of reality is thankfully not our own. Don't worry; you'll be happy to know that no such company exists in this one. As far as the known universe is concerned, you don't exist." Alice didn't react visibly, but her mind was a whirl at the possibilities, the most obvious one that this was another fucked up experiment put into motion by her former employees.

It wouldn't surprise her if that was the case, but something didn't fit. Well, a lot of things didn't fit that theory really, the most obvious one being that she was able to see a massive ball of fire outside a window to her current location. She wasn't sure if it was a cell, a simple living quarters area just for her, or what but what she did know was that she didn't trust the silver grayed hair man that hadn't seemed fit to meet her in person.

Too bad, she could have used the exercise as she beat the living Hell out of him and got some real answers without all the games he obviously loved.

As if reading her mind, TIM tapped in a few commands on his holographic interface before him and pulled up a few things for Alice to read over as a terminal lit up in the back of her living quarters. "If you don't believe me just take a look at our recent history Ms. Abernathy. You were at war with the Umbrella Corporation for years, yet in the end your world managed to succeed in pushing the bio hazardous threats back and eventually won out in the end without you, but as you can see, there's no mention of it in ours."

As much as she hated to look since she was afraid of the answers she'd find, Alice went to the terminal that had been remotely accessed by the man and saw he meant every word. Two versions of history existed side by side to each other, giving credence to the man's words that she had somehow been pulled out of her own and dropped into this one. How that had happened she had no clue, but the how didn't matter.

The fact she was alive when so many others that deserved to be here in her place…that DID matter.

"Umbrella was shut down before they could unleash the terrors locked inside the Hive because you succeeded in getting a sample of the T-Virus out to your contact, Lisa Addison. It's all there, both your history and the one we know of here, at least, it would be if it hadn't been classified ages ago by the former U.S. government."

"You never did answer my question pal. Who are you?!" Alice sent a telekinetic pulse outward, aimed solely at the holographic image that didn't react in the least. TIM smirked despite the obvious and very real threat to his person, if he hadn't prepared for this eventuality.

"As I said, we have every bit of history and shred of information we could gather about you Ms. Abernathy. It wouldn't be fair if your psionist abilities were able to melt my brain across our connection now would it? Your room is shielded against such a tactic as is mine in case you did somehow escape, but even if you did you wouldn't be able to leave our base. Even if you did somehow manage to get to a shuttle, where would you go?"

"Shit!" Alice cursed, not liking the odds laid against her, especially since she had no idea where she was or what she was up against for that matter. Umbrella at least hadn't managed to find a way to shield themselves against her abilities but it always gave her a bad headache if she did use her powers. This latest pulse though…it barely made her vision blurry which meant she had grown stronger over the course of her cryo sleep? Stasis?

Didn't matter, she'd find a way out and then she'd make life interesting for whoever this man was and whatever company he worked for. "I didn't wake you up and bring you here to become enemies Ms. Abernathy; that you have my word on. I woke you up and had my best scientists revive you because I need someone of your unique talents to help us."

They were asking for her help while keeping her prisoner? How did that work? "And why would I help you when I don't know anything about you?"

"A fair question, but very few people know me personally. I can however give you an olive branch and allow you access to whatever information you'd require to prove that we are not the enemy here. Some of it would of course be classified since trust works both ways, but to put it simply, we want you on our side Ms. Abernathy."

"And if I refuse?" She didn't believe for an instant that this man was on the level, but information had always been power.

TIM didn't like the idea of letting Alice go freely, but they had already gotten plenty of samples of her blood and tissue while they had been working to revive her. Despite the serum she had been injected with, the T-cells in her blood had adapted and had overcome the injection, a fact that TIM was quite grateful for. He didn't plan to make the same mistakes Umbrella had, but her blood had already shown great promise in his bio-weapons research projects. Alice herself however was still invaluable and he didn't want anyone else to have her.

"I hope that you don't but I am prepared to take steps to make sure that no one else gets their hands on you Ms. Abernathy, any part of you." Translation; he was prepared to make sure that she didn't end up in a rival's hands so that meant he'd completely erase her from existence. Great. That sounded like the Umbrella Corporation's MO to Alice. They had nuked an entire city in the hopes of leaving no trace of their major screwups in regards to the Hive as well as their experiments to begin with.

"So either I fall in line like a good little soldier or you nuke me. Kind of makes it easy to decide." Alice retorted without any humor, earning her no visible reaction from TIM as she sighed and took several steps closer to the hologram. "So what do you want from me?"

"I won't lie to you Alice. My organization exists to ensure human dominance in the galaxy. We're prepared to do the things no one else is to make sure we are the strongest we can be, but at times that means making the hard choices no one else is prepared to make. You showed a willingness to do the same in your reality and I could use someone like you working for our cause. And, you wouldn't be alone."

In answer to her obvious puzzlement, Alice looked to the door as it opened, revealing several people she hadn't thought she'd ever see again, one of them having died as a tanker exploded outside another of Umbrella's research bases in the middle of the desert not too far from Las Vegas. He had been in the center of it, having been infected by the T-Virus and without getting the cure in time; he had been a dead man walking anyway.

Carlos Oliveria had formerly been a part of Umbrella's private army of security officers and agents. At least until the day he was deemed an expendable asset and had been expended to use his own words. It had happened shortly after the virus had been allowed to escape the Hive no thanks to Major Timothy Cain ordering the underground containment protocols overridden to satisfy his own sick curiosity.

Alice would have happily sent Cain back to Hell all over again if she was ever given the chance. That aside, old feelings she thought long forgotten emerged in her old heart, seeing Carlos alive and well again. Besides the physical attraction, there had been something about him that called out to Alice and made her feel…human again, a feeling she was sorely lacking no thanks to everything she'd been through, especially after losing him once what felt like an eternity ago.

Carlos was a smaller version of a tank than Chris perhaps but he was a damn good shot and was even handy with a knife. She had seen him in action in Raccoon City enough to know that you didn't stand much of a chance against Carlos if you were a threat. He was just a hair shorter than Alice herself, a shortly cropped head of hair that was tousled purposely to look as if he had spikes on top of his head in a sense. He probably had enough axle grease in that hair of his to lube up any old diesel engine, but the look suited him.

Chris and Claire Redfield were brother and sister and had been reunited in the prison in Los Angeles, shortly after Alice had found her wandering the shores of Alaska where the Arcadia had been before sailing off. She had a similar scarab device attached to her chest as well, and it had wiped out her memory just like the nerve gas had done to Alice in the mansion above the Hive.

Chris was the strong, giant, and silent type overall, speaking only when there was a need and when he did, people listened. Despite being found in the prison, Alice had immediately known he was a soldier the way he carried himself, and despite his past association with Albert Wesker, had proven many times over that he was a friend rather than a threat.

At a huge six foot one inches, Chris was the tallest one in the room and the most physically imposing. Despite Wesker's superhuman advantages, Chris had been almost a physical match for the Umbrella leader with the help of his sister and Alice herself during the initial raid on Arcadia. Blue brown eyes set in his strong, no nonsense visage that passed for his face, and the musculature to match his huge height and build of a walking brick house without appearing grotesque at the same time.

Then there was Claire Redfield, half of her brother's immense build perhaps but she was just as capable as any of the others in a fight. Reluctant leader as she had been, Claire was a good shot with any number of pistols and submachine guns, but she preferred a rifle more times than not.

Brunette while she had been in the desert was now red hair, hung over Claire's shoulders both in front and back which offset her matching tough face that bore some resemblance to her brother's. Her eyes were steel gray, almost navy blue in the right light, and she was like Alice in that she was wiry and lean but quick on her feet. While not as physically able as Alice, she could still hold her own well enough to be dangerous.

Seeing them standing together now was a great relief since the Redfields were natural leaders and tough as nails in their respective ways. Claire had, before being captured, been leading a convoy of survivors across what had been left of the U.S. If not for Alice showing up when a huge number of crows had shown up, she most likely wouldn't be here now since said crows had been infected by the T-Virus and had attacked as a single minded swarm anyone that was unfortunate enough to be in their path.

And last but not least, Jill Valentine. Amber eyes offset by bleached blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail, her hair color being a side effect of the strength enhancing serum that had been inside the scarab attached to her chest, Jill Valentine was just as strong and fast as Alice herself. She had the frame to match, being suited for speed rather than outright strength.

Alice couldn't believe her eyes; it had to be a trick! She charged forward without a thought but Jill stopped her cold as she closed in for melee, getting Alice around her neck with her elbow and arm pressed tightly against her throat while her other hand tried to lock down Alice's hands. "It's us Alice! It took us all a while to figure it out but it's us!"

Apparently some of the serum that had been inside the device that had been on her chest had left an impression since Jill had easily taken Alice down on the Arcadia just as easily as she had here. It didn't help that Alice had been blindsided completely by her old friends' sudden return to wherever this was, otherwise the fight would have lasted a fair bit longer.

"It's us. Jill here speaks the truth as much as I'd hate to say it. We're not where we once were old friend." Carlos said as Alice stopped struggling and relaxed although it was apparent that she still didn't believe it. "If it helps you kissed me before I went to drive that tanker through the zombie mass near the gates of the Umbrella research facility in the desert around Las Vegas. I don't know exactly how I wound up here but that's the last thing I remember clearly." Carlos stated, taking a hesitant step forward since he wasn't about to spook Alice further if he could help it.

"Last thing we remember was taking on Wesker in the Throne Room onboard the Arcadia. You blasted that asshole's head wide open with your shotgun and me and my brother pumped him full of 9mm rounds for good measure. Problem was it took that nuke you planted on his chopper to finally end him once and for all." Claire stated in turn and Alice started to relax further, slowly realizing that these were indeed the same people that had fought with her against Umbrella and the hordes of undead for far too long.

"That's about the sum of it for me as well Alice. Sorry to say but you're stuck with us." Chris said last, earning a small smile from Alice herself as she finally stopped struggling and Jill let her go.

"And what about you then Jill? Last time I saw you, you were leading the charge against us on the Arcadia." Alice said as she turned on her heel and looked the woman square in the face, daring her to try to lie her way out of that one.

Jill had to look away since even though she hadn't technically been in control of herself, she still felt responsible for everything she had done since she remembered all of it. Every order given to her, every punch she had ever thrown, and every person she had killed while under Umbrella's control, Jill remembered it all and it hurt almost as badly as it did for Alice in some regards.

"I wasn't in control of myself Alice, just like you weren't for a while." She looked at Alice then, fury igniting her own face since she knew what Alice had done during her enforced servitude with the same company. "So don't judge me when your hands are just as stained as mine, if not more so."

"Ladies, take it easy. It was a whole other life and a whole other reality if our mutual…friend here is to be believed." Chris interrupted before the two super soldiers among them could try to tear each other's throats out again. Anyone else wouldn't have been so eager to get between them if they had a fraction of an idea what they were capable of, but Chris had seen both of them in action at least once.

So while it wasn't smart for him he still got between them, willing to take the risk since while he didn't trust either one of them, his sister trusted Alice, and it was enough for him. Besides, Alice had helped them both during the trip to Arcadia anyway so that was a point in her favor as far as Chris was concerned.

"Gotta hand it to you Chris, you're a better man than I had thought when we first woke up." Carlos piped in but he gently tugged Alice back despite the fact she and Jill were still shooting daggers at each other.

TIM had silently observed them all and had to mentally applaud their restraint in not killing each other in his base. He had taken a risk and it had paid off, at least for the moment and so far no one had tried to kill each other. That was a step in the right direction as far as he was concerned. "Get yourselves acclimatized since you are going to be working together from here on out ladies and gentlemen. Despite your colored pasts, you all are exactly what humanity needs in the days to come. You'll be filled in when the time is right."

Without another word the holographic representation of the Illusive Man disappeared, leaving the assembled survivors standing alone. Alice sighed and looked to most of her old friends, and while she knew Jill was right, it wasn't easy to forgive her just as Jill couldn't forgive Alice so easily either. "So, what happens now?"

"Guess we get used to living in the 2170s." Carlos replied, earning another surprised look from Alice since she had suspected something of the sort, but to know that they were not just in their own reality, as fucked up as it had been, but to also be in the future? That was stretching things a mite far. "I was the first to wake up a month ago, locked in a box shortly before the tanker exploded. They had the cure handy, an upgraded version of it and I was fine afterward. Been getting used to things since. Jill was next."

Jill had since calmed down and had situated herself on the desk that held Alice's private terminal if this was to be her new 'home'. "Shortly after…we fought on the Arcadia, I appeared out here and the first thing I truly remember of myself being in control was the scarab being removed. I was glad for the help; let's just leave it at that." Jill explained, revealing the scars where the thing's claws had dug into her chest and her heart, having been feeding its serum right into her bloodstream.

"We woke up together just as I said, shortly after the events of Arcadia as well. A week after you were dug out of the icy depths and here we are, one big fucked up family." Claire finished, making Alice roll her eyes at the terminology but she shrugged it off. At least they were alive, that was all that mattered now.

"That about covers our appearance wherever here happens to be, but anyone know HOW they did it, whoever these people are?" Alice asked, wanting to gather as much information from a reliable source as she could, not about to trust whatever she had 'access' too out of the man's promise of peace. She recognized the type and the shit he spouted since it sounded pretty much just like what Umbrella had been doing in a sense, except their motivations had been dictated by greed and power.

TIM's motivation was apparently human supremacy, which possibly meant that they weren't alone out here. They were all intelligent survivors; they have had to be to survive all those years back home. Unfortunately answers were slow in coming from her old friends since none of them knew for sure.

"We need to figure out how to get out of here." Claire stated, and Alice was glad to see someone was thinking along her style. "I'm sure we can all agree that whoever these people are, they aren't who we want to be working for regardless of their reasons. It reminds me too much of Umbrella."

"How about you keep talking there Claire. I'm sure our 'friend' isn't listening in to us plotting our escape." Alice retorted, sure they were being watched for any such ideas. "No, we can't do anything until we have more information about our 'employers' first and foremost and whatever's out there." She jerked her head to the view outside the only window in the room. "If we really are in space, we need to know how far humanity's come, as well as anything else we can use to get used to life out here."

"I can help with that Alice. Catch." Carlos tossed a wireframe device to his old friend and Alice caught it as easily as breathing. "Put it on your hand like a glove, you'll figure out the rest." Just as the man promised, Alice raised her eyebrows in slight amazement as the omni-tool activated and displayed a similar holographic interface as the one she had seen in front of TIM's chair.

"Nice." She said aloud, smiling slightly as she turned to Carlos. "How'd you get it?"

"Stole it but no one seemed to care since there's dozens of them lying around." He silently mouthed, 'among other things,' his back to one camera and his face turned enough that the other one wouldn't be able to read his lips. He caught on pretty quick; Alice had to give him that.

As soon as she was able to figure out their security measures and hacking algorithms, Alice planned to secure her omni-tool as it was called, as quickly as possible so that she could pass along the program to her friends who each had a similar device on their own hands she quickly noted.

She hadn't been the head of Umbrella's security for nothing. She knew her way around most security systems in her day and while she wasn't a true hacker, she was sure she could learn. She had the time now thanks to her third leash on life.

"So, do I have another chip in my brain like last time or did they forgo the tag?" Alice asked, hoping she didn't but she doubted she'd get an answer from her old friends. So it surprised her that Jill answered her question.

"I made sure. When I heard they were bringing you back, I made my way to the labs. They had only just gotten you on the table so I was able to keep an eye on you the whole time Alice. There's nothing new in that skull of yours." Jill had been able to sneak around the facility for a while and had managed to get to the med labs where she had watched the revival process from an air duct. It had been some of the longest three hours of her life but it was worth it given the last time Alice had been revived in an Umbrella lab.

That hadn't ended well for Angela Ashford, to say the least for the force they had assembled to take down as many infected as they could. They had also been gathering and protecting as many survivors as they could along the way before the world went to Hell in a hand basket.

Jill had seen the video feed that Umbrella had recorded from Alice's eyes thanks to the chip in her brain, and she had seen how it had gone down when she had been 'hacked' and forced to go to the nearest Umbrella lab at the time with Angela being brought along against her will.

Shaking her head to clear it before she remembered the rest, Jill continued on. "Whoever these people are, they wanted us whole and unrestrained but I'm sure there are countermeasures in place to prevent us escaping anytime soon. It's just a matter of figuring out what they are."

"Alright, so we just bide our time and try to figure out how to play their game against them. Sounds easy enough." Carlos replied, his cheerful personality still lingered despite his near death experience it turned out. In the next few weeks, they'd need every bit of strength they had as they planned their escape right underneath Cerberus's nose.

It wasn't that hard after a certain point. Given their experience in situations like this though, under a lot more stress given the fact they had been under constant threat of zombie attacks or worse, this was a walk in the park for them. The Illusive Man hadn't counted on the small group to band together as quickly or as strongly as they had. He had no idea just what he had unleashed upon his own organization.

If he had, he might not have been so eager to let them live so closely together, or allow them such freedom of movement either.

Becoming acclimatized to the future did take a bit longer, but with Alice and Claire leading the others, it wasn't an impossible task. While the location of their 'home' wasn't in any of the files they were able to hack without being detected, they did learn the name of the base at least.

Zeus Base had been built specifically as a training ground and an acclimation center, for them. The how was explained as well, although whether the Illusive Man as Alice discovered by week one allowed them to know about this part of his organization or not she couldn't say, but it was still there for them to see.

They had been testing a 'reality cannon' to put it in plain terms. The first few 'shots' fired hadn't been quite as successful as they had liked, mainly the objects, sometimes people in question didn't show up in this reality whole, but eventually they got it right and managed to grab a family of survivors out of New York shortly before they would have been otherwise overrun.

They weren't allowed to live as Alice saw in the video feed, giving them another reason to cut and run as said family were fired out of an airlock once their purpose had been fulfilled.

Their first purpose oriented firing wasn't recorded, but there was plenty of information that they had gotten out of whoever they had grabbed to give Alice a few guesses as to whoever it might have been. Someone high up in the Umbrella Corporation, most likely one of the science team members, or even one of the leaders perhaps, but there wasn't enough information to be sure.

Once they had gotten the location of herself, Jill, Claire, Chris, and Carlos did their true research begin. It turned out that they couldn't manipulate events in their own reality by snatching people out of thin air as they had with her old friends so that was a plus, but the problem was that they could do it to other realities. Technology, resources, viruses, weapons of mass infection/destruction; who knew what else. That kind of power didn't belong in one man's hands as far as Alice was concerned.

Incidentally the location of the cannon itself was part of Zeus Base. That made Alice smile a little wider. She figured that TIM had another one somewhere or would be able to build another if he didn't, but the fact remained that the one that was operational was within easy reach.

By week two her friends had gotten more than enough information on their omni-tools about the galaxy at large to get an accurate idea of how they might escape. Mass relay travel using element zero as a fuel source for starships was common in this universe. The mechanical aspects escaped Alice but Claire could fly helicopters back in the day, she figured if anyone could get them out it would be her.

Not only that but every one of them had gotten weapons training in preparation for whatever the Illusive Man wanted them to do. They had yet to draw any suspicion from the leader since all of their requests so far had truly been honest…so far. They had wanted to know about the universe and so far they hadn't been denied. Every type of training they could ask for, they got. And they were all fast learners in their respective areas of expertise.

Alice excelled in all forms of ranged weapons and many melee weapons as well. That was to be expected given her old days in the Treasury Department as well as Umbrella itself. Claire became a competent pilot, competent enough that she could at least get them off the base when it became time to do so but she had made it pretty clear she wouldn't be pulling any Crazy Ivans anytime soon.

The only opponent that could match her physically anymore was Jill Valentine, and considering they held grudges against the other sparring with her was not to be taken lightly. It kept them in top physical form at least and gave them a means to let loose although sometimes it got pretty hairy. They never used anything but their full ability even when they were in a good mood, and the few times they had let each other have it, both Alice and Jill always came out bloody and beaten black and blue all over.

By week three they had managed to steal Cerberus's equivalent of armor and the kinetic shield generators that came with them. It took some finagling but eventually they managed to figure out how the things worked. None of them trusted the people in the base enough to show them the specs, figuring they'd lie about some crucial weakness or something.

By week six, Alice had made Zeus Base's security her personal bitch. Just like the Hive, she had gotten security codes, schematics, everything they'd need to get out alive. She had since made her own VI program that had become a ghost in the machine, waiting for her command prompt to deactivate the security protocols and let them control every door, every passageway, and every airlock as they needed. For now it laid dormant, waiting for the chance to strike.

Alice let a ghost of a smile form on her face at the image she had conjured up.

A week before the big escape, Alice had had everyone take a long break so that they didn't end up burned out and were back at full strength for the plan. Just in time for the New Year, go figure. Still, they had been running themselves ragged for this moment and Alice knew she needed time to process a few of her old issues if nothing else. One of them just happened to be Carlos Olivera.

In the weeks of being part of this reality, Alice had been trying to avoid Carlos as much as possible, giving some credence to their inability to work as a cohesive unit which only masked their real intentions oddly enough, but she had to face him at some point. The week long break was a good as time as any as she sat on the windowsill that faced the supergiant Anadius. She didn't see the star; her eyes were unfocused as she recalled her last moments with Carlos before he sacrificed himself to give the others a chance to reach Alaska, and the Arcadia via helicopter.

At least it had looked like he HAD sacrificed himself anyway, only to find out he had been here for who knew how long. She knew him well enough to know he wasn't lying to her, but something about all this bugged her to no end. The Illusive Man hadn't checked in yet, which also bothered her but she didn't plan to stay around and let him find a way to control her or her friends either. The sooner they were off of Zeus Base, the better.

So when her door opened up without Alice immediately hearing it, she pulled the new pistol she had been given off of her hip and pointed it at whoever had entered her room unannounced only to see it was Carlos. She sighed and put her gun away, hopping off of the windowsill and facing the man. "So…."

"So…? What, you've been avoiding me since we got here and that's all you can think to say?" Damn, she had forgotten how smart he was. He was a soldier first and foremost like her perhaps but he was still human.

"It's just…been crazy if you haven't noticed." Alice replied lamely, knowing Carlos could shoot right through her feeble excuse without even trying. "It's not everyday we go from survivors of the zombie apocalypse to being trapped by another company that seems a little too much like Umbrella with an agenda to make humanity better than our galactic neighbors. Did I really just say that?"

It was the first time that any of them had said anything to confirm that they weren't alone out in the universe. While they hadn't met any of the alien species out there, they had still seen more than their fair share of news feeds and the like to know it was real. They really weren't alone in the universe.

Carlos offered a small grin as he stepped closer to Alice, the desk the only thing between them. "Yeah well, you're not the only one that's had it rough Alice. Before you and the others showed up I was the only one here. I had been ready to go out with a bang and the next thing I know, I'm having the mother of all seizures since they still hadn't worked out all the bugs in their reality cannon. I know you've died at least once, Alice, but the circumstances were different. I might as well have died and been reborn violently into this world. The only thing I could think of was not getting the chance to tell you how I really felt about you besides that kiss we shared."

"Don't…I can't." Alice tried to turn away but Carlos had since gotten around the desk and had her up against the wall. She could have easily knocked him back but Carlos was one of the few people she could never hurt willingly. "I don't want to risk losing you again." She whispered, her voice barely audible even to Carlos.

"The feeling goes both ways, Alice." Carlos replied just as softly as he hugged her tightly to his chest, feeling her small yet long arms do the same a few moments later. "Hey, when this is over we'll party, maybe get ourselves a private room for a month and take a much needed vacation from all this shit."

Alice managed a small laugh as she looked up into the man's face, a few tears forming in her eyes but she didn't care. "You almost sounded like LJ just then. He must have rubbed off on you."

That got Carlos to laugh and Alice managed another small one of her own as she melted into his arms, shivering as old memories assaulted her. "Sssshhhh, we'll be ok Alice. You've been so strong for so long, we all have. Now we have a chance to start a life once we're out of here."

Alice didn't say anything; she couldn't since she didn't know what their chances were since zombies were easy to deal with. Men were easy as well but that was before they had been beamed over a century into the future. Even with all of the information and plans that they had laid out, who was to say they'd succeed?

Her mind shut down when Carlos kissed her.

It was heated, it was full of promise, and she forgot all about her doubts and old war wounds as she returned the kiss. When they finally came up for air, Alice's eyes were glazed over as heat pooled in her innards, a feeling she had long since forgotten about. The last time she had even come close to what she was feeling now had been more akin to lust than love, and her last boyfriend had essentially killed the world by unleashing the T-Virus on the inhabitants of the Hive.

Spence was another man she'd have gladly killed again if given the chance. She had to settle with sinking an ax into his skull after he had become a zombie after the licker ate half of him.

She forgot all about that though when Carlos smirked and Alice just rolled his eyes. "Get on that bed before I tear your clothes off right here you big ape." Alice smirked in turn, and Carlos obeyed like a good little soldier. He even saluted before they took their 'fight' to bed.

* * *

On December 31st, 2177, Alice and her team made the first move as Alice activated the secured partition in her friends' omni-tools, giving them access to the private frequency she had since set up. "It's game time. Let's make these people pay and get the Hell out of here."

They didn't have to be told twice or even confirm they had heard her since Alice knew them well enough by now to know they'd follow her lead. By the time Cerberus knew what was going on, Zeus Base wouldn't be on the galactic map and they'd be presumed dead if they were lucky. If everything went according to plan, they had since agreed that the System Alliance military was the best place to be.

Entering the command code, Alice's eyes lit up with murderous glee as she hit enter and watched as communications were cut off from the outside. "Say goodnight boys." She had since let her fingers fly over her holographic keyboard as she activated several programs to run nearly simultaneously. Every video feed was cut, every door was locked tight except for the ones Alice and her friends neared as a proximity code hacked the doors opened for them unless it was an airlock, and every alarm was silenced before it could even begin to ring out.

For good measure, Alice checked the position of her allies before opening every airlock that they weren't near and watched as Cerberus operatives were sucked out of all of them on the map she had pulled up of the base. That would take care of a lot of opposition, but they still had a lot to take out before they reached the closest hangar bay.

The battle was only beginning for them.

"You know the drill. Hit them hard and hit them fast!" Alice had since exited her private quarters and met only three of the Cerberus troops that had escaped the opening of the airlocks. They didn't escape her as she fell upon them like a tornado. Kinetic shields were only good against their version of bullets. Melee fighting was a different matter entirely as Alice crushed their ablative armor and the men underneath like so much tissue paper with every attack.

She had earned the name Ass Kicking Alice, and now Cerberus was finding out exactly why she was called such as she decimated the three men.

One had his neck snapped before he even knew what was going on. Tossing the dead man into his friends with enough force to trip them, she stomped on a second's man back hard enough to snap his spine like a twig before using him as a stepping stone to tackle the third. He had reacted faster than the other two, but his gun never got close to getting a bead on her as he hit the floor. Using her right fist, she hit the third man's faceplate hard enough to shatter it and the soldier's nose, sending bone fragments into his brain.

"You can count on me." Chris replied first, having been in the armory as per their plan, already having gotten their gear together. Jill and Alice didn't need weapons like the rest of them, but they just made them more effective anyway. The gear was more for himself, his sister, and Carlos really.

"Got ya Alice." That was Claire as she quickly joined her brother and suited up. With their suits and guns powered up and ready to go, Chris and Claire Redfield exited the armory, Chris carrying the rest of their gear on his back as he pulled his shotgun off of the magnetic clip on his heavy armor and let the first trooper he saw have the full spread right to his face.

His shields were decimated as was most of his armor but he yet lived, although the bleeding holes he had in his chest were going to be a problem if left unattended. That was corrected as his sister used her pistol and unloaded two rounds into the man's skull a moment later.

Having since gotten to the armory door, Carlos caught his assault rifle as Chris tossed the weapon to the former Umbrella agent, smirking as he did a quick cursory check of the very advanced piece of equipment. Old habits died hard for good soldiers of any company, whether it was the U.S. Army Rangers or Umbrella's private security force. Finding everything in order, Carlos looked over Chris's shoulder and opened fire with a quick controlled burst of incendiary rounds, shredding apart the Cerberus operative that had tried to get a bead on the big man. "Wish I had this during our Z days."

Claire had to roll her eyes at that but didn't get a chance to reply as another door was dented when someone or something hit it hard. Another violent impact had another of Cerberus's troops bursting through what remained of the door as Jill quickly followed behind what was left of the man she had used as a battering ram. "Bastard managed to hack Alice's protocols." Was the only explanation the others got as Alice herself soon joined them.

Looking at the ruined door and the carnage from being used as an improvised door opener, she could only shake her head in amusement as Alice took point after being handed her twin SMGs from Chris as well as her own armor. Suited, booted, and loaded for boar, the former survivors of the zombie apocalypse went to work.

The Illusive Man would eventually figure it out Alice was sure of that, but they'd be long gone if she had anything to say about it as another door opened up in front of them, and revealed three dozen men between them and the path she had plotted to get them to the nearest shuttles. "Guess they're smarter than I thought." Alice smirked as she and her friends took cover just in time as a literal storm of mass accelerator rounds filled the air where they had just been standing.

The room they were in was part of some production facility; conveyer belts, robotic arms and laser cutters moving about the place with a single minded purpose. It seemed that this was where the Atlas power armors were created if the giant suits of armor they could see were anything to go by. Guess the data they had been able to gather wasn't one hundred percent accurate after all. Go figure.

Claire, Chris, and Jill had gone left, using the conveyer belts as cover while Alice and Carlos had gone right, using the machinery that assembled the power suits as moving cover and temporary shields between them and the armed soldiers. It worked both ways perhaps, but these boys had no idea who they were up against.

The metal bulkhead walls were soon scorched as Carlos popped out of cover and honed in on an explosive crate that was being used as cover by four of the group. A few quick shots to the containers saw the four reeling as their shields were shredded before the men underneath died a moment later as Carlos laid down a stream of incendiary rounds over them next.

Alice had since jumped up onto the moving parts of the factory, gaining the high ground as she unloaded every round in her SMGs until they overheated, her right hand weapon belting out disrupter rounds while the one in her left fired off incendiary slugs. The combination was enough to kill a dozen of their opposition with ease in the few seconds it took her to unload on them all. Just to add insult to injury, when one of the laser cutters got close enough, Alice used her telekinesis and aimed the laser at another explosive crate and watched as three more were flattened against the wall behind them.

It left them wide open for Chris and Claire who had since started to approach from the left flank. Devastating shotgun rounds followed by Claire's unerring shots with her pistol were enough to even the odds further in their favor. It wasn't until one of the Atlas mechs started firing back did they have to fall back. "SHIT! Jill, think you can take that thing down?" Chris yelled over the mini gun's noise as the mech shredded the ground where they had just been standing a moment ago, having been forced back behind the conveyer belts.

Alice had had to get back behind the machinery as the remaining troops started to show some skill at last and had started to lay down suppressive fire against the former head of security. She had taken several hits and while her shields had held, Alice had to wait until they recharged before she'd tried going for the mech herself if she could.

The attack had her beside Carlos who had since moved up but they were pinned down. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't risk using the full force of her telekinetic abilities here lest she wanted to tear a hole out into space. That would kind of defeat the purpose of their escape attempt.

Jill was the only one free as she charged the Atlas at a full run. Almost seeming to blur across the field, the mech's pilot couldn't get a bead on the woman until she had landed on the mech's glass faceplate that was the only thing separating him from the outside world.

Using her omni-tool, she planted a mine on the front and flipped herself over the back before the bomb shattered the armored glass plating. She knew she had succeeded without needing to hear the bomb go off as the mech took a half step back as if staggered by a heavy punch.

Pulling herself nimbly over the mech again, Jill grabbed the pilot by the front of his armored chest and tossed him bodily out before taking his place. "COME ON!" She shouted at the top of her voice, using the armored exoskeleton suit against the enemy soldiers in front of her. She had managed to keep the shields intact which only gave her an added layer of protection as Alice, Claire, Chris, and Carlos pushed forward once again. The remaining Cerberus troops in the assembly plant didn't have a chance as they were wedged in from three sides, left; right, and dead center with Jill acting as the head of their wedge.

Hopping out of the mech, Jill dusted her hands off and quickly fell in line with Chris as Alice and Carlos lead the way with Claire in the center. Their plan would come to nothing without a pilot they could trust.

Every angle of fire was covered as the team kept their eyes peeled for anyone else. Coming to a T intersection, Alice stopped Carlos from sticking his head out as a sniper bullet ricocheted off the wall. Someone hadn't even bothered to check their target before firing, a rookie mistake, and one that had probably just saved their lives as Alice stuck her head out and got a bead on the rookie sniper who was on a catwalk overlooking the shuttle bay. He wasn't alone, the area having since been filled with another large enemy force and they were entrenched heavily.

They needed another way into that shuttle bay.

Chris found it first. "If we head back a couple halls and go up a floor, we should be able to come up above the shuttle bay and be able to cut our way through the floor. Or if the way isn't thick with troops we could fight our way to the catwalk that sniper's set up his nest."

"Sounds better than letting them funnel us into a death trap." Jill replied, holding her own SMG close to her chest as Alice nodded in agreement. She hadn't expected such a heavy response so quickly, but she wasn't without a backup plan. When that failed, the airlock being too close to the hallway they were currently in to safely use against the troops, it was always good to be able to adapt.

Falling back, but not before throwing a couple of explosive grenades to close the entryway behind them, the five man team found their way to an ascending ramp that led up to the floor they needed although three more Cerberus troops were waiting for them. Alice didn't give them the time of day as she unloaded another full clip from both of her weapons.

She had to hand it to the future, she didn't have to worry about ammo at least although she only used what she needed and nothing else. When you came from a world where every bullet, every drop of fuel, and every bit of food was a precious resource, you tended to save wherever possible.

The sheer excess had been overwhelming for the longest time, but that was for later consideration as Alice lead with Carlos right beside her, clearing the front whenever required until they got to their destination. A quick peek outside was all that she needed to see the sniper had since turned his attention to the opened door.

He only got one more shot out that obliterated Jill's shields but didn't stop her as she bull rushed him hard, flipping him over her before kicking him square in the chest. She watched him go flying over the edge where he fell hard, never to rise again before she had to duck for cover behind the metal railing as shots started pelting her position.

Running out of cover, Alice and Carlos prepped two more grenades and tossed them over the catwalk to land amidst the soldiers underneath. Six men were roasted while another six were wounded but they too soon joined the growing ranks of the dead as Chris and Claire started firing their pistols down on them. Carlos and Alice had since started firing as well, seeing several more troops trying to rush the stairs in the back of the shuttle bay only to push them back hard.

"Concussive shots!" Carlos and Chris finished off the troops trying to reach them from the stairs and watched in grim satisfaction as the rounds found their targets, curving around and hitting them square in the back, the front ranks having brought in what looked to be a riot shield of some sort. "Again!" When they were able, another two concussive rounds found the remaining troops, and just as before, two explosive shells hit them where they were weakest.

With the way clear, Alice and Jill vaulted over the railing, firing the whole way down as they finished off any survivors before landing on the bottom of the shuttle bay. Chris, Claire, and Carlos had to take the stairs and finish off a few stragglers along the way, but when they reached the two super soldiers among them, the two women had since gotten a small transport craft prepped and ready to go. It'd get them to the relay and to safety at the least, and that was all they needed as everyone piled in as quickly as possible.

Carlos was the last one in and got the ramp pulled up and the doors locked down before getting himself strapped in beside Alice. Chris and Jill were on the other side with Claire at the helm.

Having spent most of the time behind the controls of flight simulators before their big escape, Claire had gotten pretty adept at the flight controls of a number of the Cerberus fighters. She wasn't the best by any means, but neither was she a slouch as she got their ship powered up while Alice hacked the shuttle bay doors from her omni-tool. It paid having administrative access even if she had to hack herself a back door to get it originally.

Luckily they had taken the shuttle that had been in the very back as the bay was depressurized and everything in front of them was sucked out into the empty space beyond. Claire had finished her preflight checks when the way became clear and she put the pedal to the metal, so to speak. "Everyone hold on!"

They got out just in a nick of time as Zeus Base was remotely detonated, the Illusive Man having gotten control during the fighting and had activated the base's self destruct. Because of the supergiant that was nearby, their exit was completely undetected from any scanners by the neighboring Cronos Base, meaning no one knew for sure if they had made it out alive or not. Alice had outsmarted one of the most resourceful men this side of reality, and not even the Illusive Man was sure if his prized asset was alive or dead now as the transport craft made its way through the relay, never to be seen again.

* * *

Steven Hackett, Admiral Steven Hacket wasn't sure what he was doing for once in his long and illustrious career as his ship and several smaller frigates waited outside the relay to Arcturus Station. He had received a coded and heavily encrypted message from an unknown source, promising a great deal of information about the Alliance black ops group, Cerberus, who had recently broken away from the Alliance.

All he had to do was not fire on the single transport ship and allow whoever was aboard onto his vessel.

He wasn't known to take chances with his men's lives however, and since the message hadn't asked he come alone or anything of the sort, (not that he would have listened even if it had,) he had taken precautions and had part of the Fifth Fleet waiting alongside his own ship just in case it was a trap. You didn't come this far in the System Alliance by taking foolish chances with your life or those of your men. Information was on a need to know basis perhaps but his men trusted his judgment and besides, the rumor mill had since gotten it right in regards to being related to Cerberus.

While most of those under his command only knew the information they were allowed to know, that Cerberus was a terrorist group that sought human dominance over the rest of the galaxy, it was people like Admiral Hackett that knew just how powerful and potentially dangerous these people were.

It was enough to keep him up at night if he let it dominate his thoughts for too long, especially after raiding the few labs they had been able to uncover ever since the split. No one deserved that kind of degradation that Cerberus had forced upon them.

His attention was thankfully taken elsewhere when activity in the relay was detected, signifying someone was coming through until a flash of light came out of the relay and took the form of a small transport ship bearing Cerberus's emblem on the side. "Hold fire, that must be our guests. Open the shuttle bay doors and prepare a squad, I want them locked down in case they are hostile."

"Yes sir!" One of his officers replied, sending his orders down to a waiting company of Alliance marines who were waiting for their new arrivals to disembark.

Coming aboard the impressive dreadnought, everyone in the transport craft were impressed by the sheer size of the monstrous ship before them. None of them had expected anything like it despite their rush to gather as much information about this universe as they could. They had seen the numbers on the known Alliance ships sure but seeing it in person was a whole other affair than seeing it on a small terminal screen. "Are you sure you want to deal with them Alice? I mean look at the size of that thing!"

Even Ass Kicking Alice was a bit nervous as they approached the dreadnought that held her potential contact into the Alliance if everything went according to plan. "It's too late to back down now Claire, but yes I'm sure. Besides, if I wasn't I would have had you drop us off on Eden Prime instead."

"I could go for being on a planet instead of out here in the middle of nowhere." Claire replied under her breath but Alice was the boss. She had gotten them this far, and besides, she had gotten her back together with her brother Chris who was passed out in the back. So was Carlos much to Alice's silent amusement, but her smile died when she looked to Jill. Her face was a study of silent loathing although whether it was directed at her or herself Alice couldn't say for sure.

That might be a problem later.

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it as Hackett's voice was heard through their ship's comms. "This is Admiral Steven Hackett, leader of the Fifth Fleet. We require confirmation of your intention out here Cerberus vessel."

Alice took control of the comms and gave her reply. "My name is Alice Abernathy. My message had the tag line, the Black Queen." It had seemed almost poetic in a sense since black was the color used at funerals and symbolized death. Given her association with the White and Red Queen A.I. computer systems, when the idea struck, Alice jumped on the chance to put it to use.

Admiral Hackett shivered slightly as if a phantom chill hit him but he shook it off, unsure why the voice on the other end made him nervous as he replied a moment later. "Welcome to Arcturus Station Ms. Abernathy. You're cleared for entry but I ask that you and your team surrender your weapons so we can do this as peacefully as possible."

"Alright." Alice shut off the comms as Claire looked to Alice, still not liking this idea but trust won out in the end as she watched Alice wake up Carlos and Chris. Jill still looked silently off to the distance until Alice put a hand on her shoulder. She snapped her attention to Alice but didn't lash out thankfully. "Welcome back."

"Yeah…." Was all Jill would say as everyone got ready to disembark the transport, their armor powered down and their weapons locked tight against them. Alice had expected a full compliment of marines to greet them but she hadn't expected them to be pointing their guns in her face when the side door opened to allow them to get off the ship and onto the dreadnought proper.

"Is that any way to treat a girl?" Alice asked with the barest trace of amusement

"Stand down marines." An older gentleman said as he came near the shuttle, escorted by several more troops in heavy armor from what the team aboard the shuttle could see. The men that had been aiming their guns at Alice and her friends lowered their weapons but kept them out, just in case. "Welcome aboard the SSV Orizaba. I'm Admiral Steven Hackett. You must be Alice Abernathy."

"I am." Alice replied, finding she liked this man already since she had expected to be speaking to a messenger or intermediary rather than the man in charge of this ship and the Fifth Fleet itself. He was willing to go on a little faith and give them a chance.

"So that information you sent me I take it was legit and that you destroyed the base on your way out the door." Hackett hadn't believed Alice's claims, but the fact she was here and that she had sent a fair amount of Cerberus intel even before arriving which they had been able to confirm without Cerberus so far being none the wiser had put the woman in good standing with him and the Alliance. Whoever she was, he wanted her on his side, her and her allies.

"Yes. Now if you don't mind, we've had a long day and I'd prefer if you spaced this transport vessel since we weren't able to get rid of its locator beacon, if it has one, and I wouldn't be surprised if it did, before Cerberus figures out we didn't die in the explosion." Jill interrupted before Alice could say the exact same thing that had been on her mind.

"Of course, Ms. Valentine I take it? We'll continue this discussion in the morning. In the meantime if half of that data we received is accurate, you've earned yourselves a great deal of respect and possibly a place in our ranks if you're half as good as I suspect. Gather whatever gear you left onboard, we'll hold onto it for you until we know for sure you can be trusted." Alice nodded and her friends did as Hackett asked, handing over everything but the clothes on their backs as a gesture of good will.

If push came to shove, they could always escape again.

"I told you they'd escape." The Illusive Man knew his first test subject of the reality cannon had had a valid point now. He had underestimated Alice and her old compatriots who had made a mockery of his best men in their bid for freedom. He hadn't anticipated them becoming such a cohesive whole so quickly as they had, let alone learning how to override every failsafe and security measure he had had in place to prevent such a…as the holographic image behind him had correctly termed, a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

Everything they had done, they had done with a single minded purpose that had astounded the Illusive Man's wildest expectations at the time, realizing too late that they weren't planning to help him at all.

With their skillset and their past rivalries and inability to trust anyone that wasn't on their side, having hoped that the times they had been forced to fight against each other due to Umbrella's influence, would have splintered and fought against each other more. All the evidence had suggested that they would until Alice had uploaded her VI program into the network dubbed the Black Queen.

Then, all bets had been off as Alice and her friends had decimated everyone in their path, creating chaos on a wide scale by opening the airlocks wherever her people weren't and locking down every door save for the ones they neared or his own tech experts had been able to hack through only to be brushed aside by Alice and her friends.

He had been warned but TIM hadn't listened, having figured that the survivors of whatever infighting had been scripted he knew now would have been the ones that would have fallen in line with his regime to see humanity ascend past the alien populace. Now, he was down an entire base, his reality cannon was destroyed, and he had lost all of his prized assets in a single day.

"Chris and Claire Redfield were dangerous enough in my time and reality, Jack Harper." TIM turned then and faced the holographic image of the man, their first oriented test firing of the cannon. "Don't act so surprised, information was one of the key perks of being in the position I was in my day. I still kept my skills and I've learned so much more thanks to you Jack. Don't worry though; I still believe you have the right idea."

"That's good to know Mr. Wesker." Wesker's eyes shone bright red behind the sunglasses he always favored. The virus he carried in his body made him a dangerous threat, but TIM had taken steps to ensure his obedience. "Because we both know the control chip in your brain can make you fall in line if you ever do decide to be a problem."

Wesker didn't visibly react save to clench his right hand into a tight fist. He felt like a dog on a short leash, but at least he was alive, cloned and taken right out of the Umbrella in Russia thanks to TIM's interference. "So, do you want me to go after her Jack?"

"No. I'm curious to see how things play out. We have more resources than even the Alliance. Besides, even Ms. Abernathy will have her role to play before this is over." Wesker had to give Jack Harper credit, he saw a much bigger picture than most people even in Wesker's former position could have ever imagined. Even so, Albert Wesker hadn't gotten in his position by allowing men like Jack to hold all the cards. He had his own agenda to put into motion…

_A/N I know I faded to black on the whole Carlos and Alice sexy time but I plan to do a couple of flashbacks about Spence as well as her more recent session with Carlos on Zeus Base. ;D In the meantime there are plenty of things yet to come and I hope you've enjoyed as much as I enjoyed putting it together. ;D Adios!_


	2. Ch 2 Building Alliances

_A/N I wonder if any of our resident Resident Evil fans recognize the name I picked for this? I'll give you a hint, it involves the Red Queen. 'Evil laughter ensues.' Anyway, last chapter I demonstrated just how awesomely effective everyone was in the mad rush to escape the Cerberus base, and revealed that Albert Wesker is on a short leash since even the Illusive Man isn't stupid enough to allow Wesker his freedom to do whatever he wants, although there are always ways around even the tightest control, it just takes some ingenuity is all. ;D It will probably be a while before we see him doing anything but be TIM's 'pet' in a sense, but in the meantime there is so much more to do and so little time. ;D Enjoy!_

_Content Advisory; Sexual content this chapter most likely, no more fade to black crap as I've been known for in all of my other fics. Just thought I'd warn you now. ;D_

_Darn it! I always forget to include the separation lines!  
_

* * *

**Ch 2. Building Alliances**

"_Something's killing them in there!" She says as she sees the laser powering up for another pass shortly before slicing through another of the team that had gone inside the Red Queen's only hallway to reach her AI core to shut her down._

"_Watch the pipes! The pipes!" She yells to no avail as MP5K auto fire is unleashed on the encroaching…zombies is the only word she can think of that fits before an explosion knocks her to the ground, dazing her for several seconds._

"_Spence?" She asks, seeing his hand twitch before she realizes a second too late that he had been the one to start it all. They both reach for the single pistol she had sat down to retrieve the anti-virus only to have it snatched from her fingers and aimed at her head._

"_I've been a bad bad girl." The Red Queen seems to all but gloat as she reveals just how bad she had been as….some kind of freakish red creature tears into Spence before mutating. As much as he deserved to die for the deaths of every man and woman in the Hive, Alice was more concerned by the fact that the bitch computer had been saving that thing for them in the hopes it'd kill them before escaping._

_A thrown knife sails over her shoulder and hits the Umbrella trooper square in the neck. Carlos gives her one of his trademark smiles before saying in that voice she find so sexy. "You missed one."_

_She's powerless to stop herself as Isaac orders her to kill Angela Ashford. Alice raises her gun and the next moment, the back of Angie's skull explodes as Alice pulls the trigger._

**System Alliance Dreadnought, SSV Orizaba**

**In orbit around Arcturus Station.**

**January 1****st****, 2178. 0500 Hours. (5 AM.)**

Coming awake fast, Alice sat up and managed to bite back the scream that wanted to escape her lips. Waking up in an Alliance vessel, in an actual bed, (although she had been doing that since arriving in that Cerberus base, it was still something she was getting used to,) Alice swung her legs over and bent over as she put her hands against her temples.

Carlos didn't even stir but she could tell he was awake since his breathing didn't have the sound of the sleep induced. He only confirmed it when he sat up and wrapped his hands around her waist and she felt his breath against her neck. "Angie?"

Alice didn't answer, didn't have to answer since Carlos had gotten the grim details more or less after Alice had disappeared completely off the grid and had stayed gone long after the world had essentially ended. He had tried to stop her from going, but she had known she was a risk to anyone that got near her, especially if Umbrella found her again.

Besides, she had been pretty shaken up by the fact that Umbrella had found a way to control her as they had. She couldn't stop the guilt from eating her up even if she hadn't been in control of her actions. She had managed to stop it from happening again for the longest time by figuring out the satellites' flight paths over the U.S., the few that remained anyway, and reprogramming them so that they couldn't be used nearly as easily as before against her.

For the longest time she had been able to stay out of sight and out of the line of sight of any passing satellites until she had gone back to what passed for civilization during those days. Out of all the convoys she could have found, she had to find the one that Carlos and his new friends were a part of. She ended up saving their lives only to inadvertently get more of them killed by Dr. Isaac's enhanced zombies.

She should have done more than break Isaac's arm when she had had the chance.

At least she was able to watch him get cubed by the same laser defense grid that had killed most of the team that had been sent into the Hive when all this had started. One of her clones had been at the controls of the 'test grid' she figured out later, having seen the extent of Isaac's madness with dozens of cloned genetic models of her laying in a ditch, all wearing the exact same red dress and boots she had worn in the Hive initially.

If that wasn't madness, Alice didn't know what was since all of her cloned 'sisters' had been tossed out like so much trash after they had failed to clear the testing grid. He had been trying to find a way to domesticate the undead population and had instead only made them stronger using her blood as the basis for his research. Whatever his reasoning, it had turned into obsession which had cost more lives than helped.

That was a going theme for Umbrella. Pretend to be helping the world only to watch it burn around you due to your own stupidity and greed for power, wealth, whatever.

She was brought out of her depressed state as Carlos kissed her neck, unaware that she had been silently crying the whole time she had let her mind wander. "There was nothing you could have done differently Alice. We're lucky to be alive at all." He hugged her tighter, making Alice melt all over again as she turned around in the bed they shared and faced him.

Alice always appeared strong, tough, and damned determined but only a few, very few people knew just how much of a normal human being she was underneath the hard kick assing persona she wore like a thick suit of armor against the horrors of the world they had come from. Carlos was one of the few people that had ever seen her without the mask as he brushed his thumbs close to her eyes, wiping away the tears that had fallen.

She didn't know how to react to that as she instinctively put her right hand on top of one of his, gently squeezing it before realizing what she was doing, but before she could flinch away Carlos had since entangled his fingers in hers. "It's just….so much to take in. Several weeks ago we were fighting for our lives against impossible odds….and now?"

"Now we have a chance to do something besides fight for our day to day survival, Alice. We can be normal…well, as normal as we can be anyway." Alice managed a weak chuckle at that as she embraced Carlos in turn, letting her head rest against his right shoulder. Closing her eyes, she felt…safe, human, almost normal even if she wasn't, not even close no thanks to Umbrella.

Who'd have thought things would have wound up like this? None of them had ever thought it possible and now? Now they had a whole new lease on life and Alice had no idea what to do with it personally. She had been fighting for far too long to know anything else, or at least that's what she believed, but Carlos made it sound like there might be more for her, for all of them.

It was still too early to tell, they had only been technically free from their latest jailors for a little less than 12 hours. Who was to honestly say that the Alliance wouldn't want to dissect her and Jill for their own nefarious reasons? No, she had to give them more credit than that since Alice had done as much research as she could using Cerberus's resources. And boy what resources they had.

Again she was brought out of her thoughts as Carlos found her lips again and Alice couldn't suppress a small moan as they broke away. "You really know how to distract me Carlos. Don't you know it's unhealthy to tease a girl?" Temporarily forgetting her poor mood, Alice's blue eyes seemed to shine in the darkened living quarters they had been issued by Admiral Hackett. As long as they were guests aboard his vessel, and since they weren't enlisted persay, they were able to fraternize without restraint.

"Who said anything about teasing?" Carlos countered as that damn sexy smirk on his face was all the incentive she needed to straddle his lower waist with her own.

Rumors of her being quite promiscuous in the early days had just been that, rumors and nothing more. It wasn't until Spence showed up in her life that she had let her hair down. Being assigned to mansion duty had required them to find ways to entertain themselves and well, they had been full grown adults. Umbrella didn't care as long as they did their jobs and that was mainly protecting the secret entrance/exit to the Hive.

Carlos however she hadn't been able to have until after they had taken that break before the escape attempt. Too much had been going on, and that night was one that she favored over the several she had had with Spence. Spence might have had endurance to match hers even before her forced 'evolution, but she actually felt something for Carlos.

It made all the difference for Alice.

Sighing softly as she felt him enter her, Alice sunk slowly down upon Carlos as he leaned back on the bed, watching her face light up as pleasure started to overtake them both. He was out of practice perhaps but he still knew all the steps the few times he had actually gotten involved with a woman. Sure Alice could snap his neck with a stray 'thought' but he didn't fear for his life in the least with her.

Love, something Alice hadn't believed in after the world had gone to shit no thanks to both Spence and Cain, was the only thing that made sense for the feeling pulsing in her heart as Carlos pulled her down for a heated kiss, their bodies rubbing against each other as they moved together in the oldest dance there was.

Bracing herself against the wall in front of her, Alice groaned as she felt the man's mouth on her breasts as she continued to slowly buck and grind against him. At this rate, she wouldn't last long and she didn't care. Digging her fingers into the metal before her, she hissed through her teeth as she felt Carlos's teeth tug on her right breast and the nipple itself.

The little pain only added to her overall bliss as she bucked unexpectedly at the lightning that lit up her nervous system like the 4th of July. Alice moaned in the back of her throat and while she had just climaxed for the first time in ages, she wasn't nearly finished, and thankfully neither was Carlos as she suddenly found herself on her back a moment later.

Staring up into Carlos's face now, she didn't mind one bit that he took the reins. She had a feeling they were going to be there a while, and she didn't care one bit. As long as this lasted, the ship could explode and she wouldn't take notice.

* * *

Jill Valentine was in no mood to fuck around as she ran the gamut in the gym, death defying leaps and acrobatic maneuvers her forte after being subjected to P30, Umbrella's mind controlling drug of choice that also made her superhuman after her long and illustrious 'service' under their influence. While she hated what she had been forced to do while under Umbrella's control, she did have to give them props for the side effects of the drug which lingered permanently in her system, which meant she would remain superhuman until the day she died.

The added strength and speed was a huge benefit as she easily navigated the obstacle course in record time, needing to push herself to her limits to feel any amount of satisfaction these days. That and she always felt the need to push herself to try to forget everything she had been aware of yet unable to stop herself from doing while under Umbrella's thumb. The most recent of said bad memories was the assault on Arcadia, a ship that had held nearly 2,000 'survivors', captured by Umbrella just so they could continue their twisted experiments.

She had led that particular charge, acting as the Red Queen's puppet the whole time. She could still clearly see the 'child' the A.I. was modeled after in her vision if she closed her eyes for any length of time, the scarab device on her chest allowing the bitch of a homicidal computer to control her like a damn remote controlled robot. She couldn't count the numbers of days she had spent screaming inside her own head, trying to break through the control leveled against her.

Stopping before a heavy duty punching bag after elegantly landing on the ground without ever breaking her stride, Jill slammed her right foot against the bag and watched it as it broke the chain it was attached to and continued to watch it as it exploded against the wall. Only then did she fall to her hands and knees, panting from the extreme exercise routine she had put herself through as sweat rolled off of her in waves. That was the only bad thing.

When she pushed herself to her limit, extensive as it might be, Jill always crashed hard afterward. It left her heart racing a mile a minute and she wasn't able to function properly for at least ten minutes, always feeling as if she was going to have a heart attack until she calmed enough to stand again. Chris had made the mistake of trying to help her on the shuttle and she had nearly snapped his neck for the trouble.

It had been shortly after they had made the final approach and Chris, after being woken up by Alice; saw that Jill didn't look so good. He had offered her a hand only to feel Jill's hand around his throat before he knew what was going on. To his credit, he hadn't tried to fight her, he only stared her down until she came back to reality which thankfully didn't take too.

She didn't realize that Chris had been watching her the whole time until she felt his hand on her shoulder. She didn't try to choke him out of reflex this time, but she still jerked her shoulder away and stood on her own. "Just don't…"

Chris didn't say anything; he didn't have to as he backed off but didn't let his gaze wander away from Jill's face. "Damn it quit staring at me already! I'm fine!" Jill growled, but he still didn't look away.

"I can see that." Chris replied simply, not believing her for an instant since all of them had been through their own Hells before ending up here of all places. Jill sighed heavily and stalked off to the showers. The zombie apocalypse, the Global T-virus outbreak, whatever you wanted to call it, had changed them all in different ways, and few of them were good changes.

Jill knew it as well but she ignored Chris's silent stare as she tried to slam the door shut behind her, still not used to the fact everything was automated in this universe and time frame before giving it up shortly after trying before stomping her way to the shower furthest from the door.

Only when she was out of sight and in the darkest corner in the locker room's showers did she let her defenses down and curled up into a ball in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest. She felt sullied and unclean from everything she had been forced to do, and she always felt like she hadn't been strong enough to stop the mind controlling and brainwashing as she murdered innocent people.

She knew logically she couldn't have done anything while being controlled by the Red Queen and thus Umbrella, but Jill still felt like shit about it all the same as she sobbed her heart out, completely missing the just audible sound of the door opening as someone followed her.

Chris had seen his sister in a similar state a few times shortly after arriving in this universe since she had been a wild animal with no memory of herself while being drugged by that same device he had seen strapped to Jill's chest. Whatever that shit had done, it had effected them differently, but the fact remained they hadn't been themselves at all while under that scarab thing's influence. He only knew about it in regards to Claire since Alice had told him everything during their planning and training phase in Zeus Base.

So when he slid down next to Jill who looked up only to see who it was, Chris didn't immediately say anything. They had all been through Hell in their own ways but he wasn't going to push Jill into trying to get over her issues. That would most likely just make it worse. It was going to be a long road for all of them to return to any semblance of normalcy he was sure, but they had the time now thanks to Cerberus's meddling in their universe, their reality.

Having Chris there by her side was enough to help her calm down since he didn't have a condemning look on his face, he didn't judge or criticize her in the least; he simply sat there next to her and let her sob her heart out without complaint. Simply having his gaze on her, having his solid presence next to her was enough to sooth some of the guilt and shame she felt at not being strong enough to override the device and the drug it had pumped her full of for what felt like an eternity.

It would take time, but Jill felt a little bit better already.

* * *

Despite the armed escort ordered by Hackett, Claire had been directed to a firing range when she had asked for something to do. Shooting things always made her feel better as she hefted a heavy sniper rifle up to eye level and was surprised at how little recoil it possessed as she managed to nail the holographic target between the eyes.

She whistled in admiration before turning to see a guy unloading pinpoint accurate shots one handed at a similar targeting station like her own. Damn he was good.

The man saw her admiring his handiwork and grinned subtly at the red head beside him. "Don't you think that weapon's a bit big for you?" He didn't mean it as an insult; he honestly thought it would have knocked her on her ass, having been too focused on his own practice to have seen her fire the rifle with the steady hand of an experienced veteran.

"Pst please." Claire retorted, smiling widely as she picked up the rifle once more and fired three more shots, overheating the gun before using the interface in front of her to pull the target close for a much closer inspection. The man beside her had to give the young woman credit, she had nailed the target in front of her like any professional sniper he had ever seen in his years as an Alliance soldier.

Funny what head hunting zombies did for your accuracy.

Two of her shots had gone in where the eyes would have been far as she could figure while her third had been right in the target's neck and lower jaw or the approximation there of anyway. "Still think it's too big for me?"

"Nope, I think you handle that puppy just fine. What's your name?" The man asked, holding out his right hand as he put away the heavy pistol he had been practicing with up until a moment ago with the other.

Claire hesitated since she too was adjusting to civilized life again but she shook the man's hand and introduced herself. "Claire Redfield; and you are?"

"Commander Alexander Shepard. You must be one of the Cerberus escapees I've heard about from Admiral Hackett." Claire hadn't expected to meet anyone that had heard about her already. Shepard's smile she noted was honest and easy and she couldn't help but find it infectious as well as a small smile of her own formed on her face.

For the longest time she had not had a reason to smile no thanks to Umbrella's influence world wide. That and the nightmares she had on a regular basis about the people she had failed to protect kept her up at night, only adding to her overall misery. But seeing this handsome young man smiling at her was….strangely refreshing in a way she hadn't considered possible before.

"Yeah. We have Alice to thank for getting us together as she did. Without her tech skills we probably would still be trapped back there on Zeus Base near that giant ass star." Claire replied, earning a grin from Alexander. She had no idea why but his black hair and strong angular features reminded her of an old TV show character she used to have a crush on growing up. She couldn't recall the guy's name but his character on said show had been Angel or something. For whatever reason, looking at Alex's face reminded her of the 'vampire with a soul', minus the brooding persona.

That and she could see a cross around his neck which knocked the vampire idea out the window on its own. She chuckled at her own memory and comparison, earning a puzzled look from Shepard. "Sorry, you just reminded me of something before my world went to Hell in a hand cart."

"Let me guess, Angel?" Claire was startled but Alex chuckled at her obvious surprise. "I had a childhood too, as surprising as it might sound to the people I work with on a regular basis. Let's just say you aren't the only one to make the same comparison Claire. Besides, I think the cross kind of makes it obvious I'm not the same guy, fictional or not." Claire couldn't help but laugh at Alex's charming personality.

In a way, he reminded her of LJ. Thinking about him had a chain reaction and her good mood deflated like a pricked balloon. LJ had been the morale booster among her convoy. He had kept them going in a way that no one else had managed, and while he had never told the truth about his past, having several versions of it ready to spin at the drop of a hat, she had trusted him to keep them going when nothing else would.

Then he had gotten himself bit at the appropriately named Desert Motel before the crows had attacked them. He had turned into a zombie about the same time Isaac's enhanced zombies had slaughtered more of her convoy's occupants, almost finishing them off completely where the birds had failed to do so.

She looked away and cast her gaze to the floor at her feet. Alex noted the sudden change and wondered just what she had gone through before coming here. "It's a long story and if I hadn't lived it, I probably wouldn't believe it myself." Claire said in way of explanation before Shepard could ask her what was on her mind.

"If you don't want to talk I understand." Shepard replied, getting the feeling that whatever she and her friends had gone through would probably make Mindior look like a walk in the park. Rubbing the side of his neck that was away from Claire, Shepard briefly remembered his own past but didn't let it linger for long. "I was actually sent here to tell you that we're having a debriefing session at 0900 hours."

"Thanks. So you just decided to get some practice in during the meantime?" Claire asked, glad for the distraction as she picked up the Alliance issued pistol that was on the booth in front of her and displayed more of her skill as she fired one handed, same as Shepard.

Alex grinned again as before and nodded. "These weapons might have auto-targeting features, but it's always a good idea to still practice. Equipment is only as good as the person using it." Claire had to agree with that assessment since she had been around guns most of her life, especially during her Z days as Carlos had coined their messed up years on the run from the undead population.

She didn't use the auto-targeting computer systems that came standard with their weapons when synced up with their armor. She hadn't had it growing up so why would she use it here?

"So when's breakfast?" Claire asked when her stomach growled, making Shepard laugh lightly as he and her grabbed their respective gear and put it away in the weapons lockers behind them before they faced each other again.

"0700. Almost every deck has a mess hall so whatever floor you're on you'll be able to find your way to chow easily enough. If you want a guide I'd be happy to show you and your friends to one." And it'd give him an excuse to try to ferret out anything these people had been through if they opened up to anyone. He doubted they'd talk to the Alliance shrinks anytime soon. Someone like him though, that had been through Hell, that might be another story altogether.

The scars where the batarians had nearly stuck their control implant into Shepard's brain through his spinal column were testament to that. Luckily he had been near the edge of their control on Mindior, otherwise he'd probably be on one of their worlds working in the mines or as a female batarian's….pet. Alliance troops had managed to save him and several others before being pushed back, but not before the batarians had tried to implant a control chip into him first.

The pain from that had nearly killed him, let alone having to watch everyone he once knew be subjected to the same thing or killed outright if they proved too hard to control. He had been sixteen during the attack. Even now, he woke up with a phantom burning sensation in his neck from where the laser cutter had sliced into his flesh. At least he didn't wake up screaming anymore.

Claire didn't notice the temporarily lost look on Shepard's face as he remembered his own fucked up past, having been remembering her own until her stomach growled again. That snapped them both to the present and both chuckled in mild embarrassment at their own foolishness. "Yeah, I'll wait until closer to time there Alex. If I know Alice and Carlos, they're probably a little busy 'catching up' to be bothered right now anyway."

She had made air quotes to further emphasize her point and Alex just chuckled at the obvious meaning behind her words. He did have to ask though. "Are they married by chance or just a couple?"

The idea of Alice being married made Claire double over in laughter. "Ass Kicking Alice? Are you kidding?" She just couldn't help it. Alex wasn't laughing however, although he couldn't help the grin on his face all the same since he much preferred Claire smiling than upset personally. Eventually she calmed down and shook her head, still giggling a little as she explained why she had reacted as she had. "If you knew her you'd be able to tell right off that her and being tied down just don't go together. She's not one to whore herself around, don't think that, just she's as tough as they come and I just find it hard to imagine her happily married with kids and a white picket fence and all that."

"Hard to imagine for her, or for yourself?" Alex asked, again without any condescension in his tone and Claire was taken aback. Before being brought to this reality, she was worried about just making it to the next day. Now? Now she didn't know what she was going to do anymore than the rest of her friends most likely, now that she bothered to think about them in the same sense.

"Shit….how did you do that?" Claire finally asked, looking Alex square in the face and he had lost all trace of his humorous mood. It wasn't until he pulled down part of the collar to his shirt did she see the horrible scars on his neck. "What the fuck did that to you?"

"Long story, just like you Claire, but you're not the only one with scars. If you ever feel like sharing you'll get your answer to these." Shepard replied, pulling the collar back up over the scars on his neck before starting to walk away. That certainly gave Claire something to think about, needless to say. Now her curiosity was piqued but she wasn't quite ready to share anything that had happened to them, not without seeing where things went at least.

"Hey, wait up."

* * *

Hackett was looking over the data that Alice had given him upon their arrival. It was the stuff of nightmares on a whole other level since it included video files she had accumulated both from Cerberus and her own travels in her own reality, a full disclosure of her former dealings when interviewed by a reporter in her world called Terri Morales, and detailed files about the type of creatures she had faced. The common zombie was just the tip of the iceberg.

Nemesis, Tyrant, undead dogs, lickers, the axemen, Albert Wesker, and how Umbrella had created most of them and what they had been capable of. A brief summary of the process anyway and not the science, if it could be called that, behind the pattern of mutations that had followed from controlled exposure to the virus or the anti-virus as was the case for the Tyrant.

The basis of the T-Virus was that it shut down higher brain functions, making a person infected by it to become a raving, psychotic cannibal with perhaps a little memory but virtually no intelligence. The brain, having electrical impulses that takes weeks to completely dissipate after death, is given a massive electrical jolt, forcing the body to rise again, given credence to the term 'zombie' that they become afterward.

She had downloaded all of this off of Cerberus's network, which meant that they had the means to make more of them if they hadn't already. It made it all the more urgent then that Cerberus was shut down in Steven's opinion. The viral details she hadn't included, whether because she didn't trust them or because she hadn't been able to find them, and for that Steven was grateful since he didn't trust a few people in Parliament with that kind of information anyway.

They had only the anti-virus specs and only because Alice had felt it necessary that they'd know what they were dealing with if the worst came to pass and they faced a widespread epidemic same as her world had suffered. If that thing got loose, who knew how far it'd spread? It'd be thousands of times worse since at least in her reality, it had been contained to a single blue sphere in a single system humanity called Sol. Out here, it could spread through the relay network onboard starships and God only knew where it might end, if it did.

No, Alice knew what she was doing better than any of them when it came to this thing, and despite the fact she had shown up on a Cerberus vessel she and her team had yet to make any hostile moves towards them. If the video feeds of their ability and skills was anything to go by, his men would be lucky to stop them anyway.

Alice had recorded their escape, most likely as a warning that if they tried to screw with her or her associates, she'd rain down Hell on them all.

The warning wasn't necessary but Steven couldn't blame her for being cautious if half of her data she had given to him was to be believed. A corporation that got as powerful as Umbrella had didn't engender feelings of trust in Hackett, and the proof spoke for itself that his mistrust was well founded.

The real reason he believed her and the data she had given him before turning in for the night was the fact she had tried to set things right. While she had failed in the end, Steven could see for himself that the people that had been put into their universe as part of some Cerberus ploy was truly hoping for a chance at redemption, even if she didn't yet realize it herself. He had seen the type before many times.

She had already tried to redeem herself in her fight against Umbrella, but there were pieces of the puzzle missing from the data, that much he had a feeling on rather than any proof. There was a lot more to Alice and her associates than had been revealed, and he had set Alexander Shepard to find out what that might be.

He hoped the fact that the man who had survived Mindior, and a Hell of his own, would be able to connect with Alice, Jill, Claire, Chris, and Carlos. Already he had gotten friendly with the red headed young woman, Claire. It wasn't just to satisfy his own curiosity, but to also possibly give Shepard some closure as well.

Alexander Shepard had been sixteen when he had lost everything and he had nearly been subjected to the same cranial implantation as the colonists on Mindior that weren't immediately gunned down, but he had been lucky enough to have gotten pulled out before it was too late to save him. Steven Hackett and David Anderson both got the impression early on that he had joined the Alliance marines as a means to get back at the batarians.

A few years in Basic and under the care of one of their shrinks had straightened him out but periodic psych evals still showed he had some issues, mainly nightmares more than anything these days. He was a good soldier, but he wasn't able to be a great soldier because of his past. Revenge still held sway but Shepard didn't go out of his way to get it, which was his saving grace. Even when he had the chance Shepard had hesitated only briefly during an attack on Torfan, having to choose between saving his men or pursuing what was left of an enemy squad of batarians, before he had ran back to help his men.

Alex hadn't been happy about it, but Hackett was glad to see that Shepard was starting to be the soldier he knew he could be.

That aside, after having reviewed the data that Alice had sent him, Hackett had gotten a hold of Shepard's shrink and had been on the line for a good three hours before a decision was agreed upon by both parties from what he was able to reveal to the Alliance doctor. Have Shepard try to get the answers, and if things went well, perhaps he'd also find a connection to help him get past the rest of his own issues.

It had sounded like a good idea, and it seemed to be working.

He doubted that the people that had come from the other reality would be willing to talk to one of the shrinks, but if Shepard was able to help in any way so that they could return to some sense of normalcy, then that would be enough for Hackett, completely unaware of the chain of events he had set into motion.

* * *

Alice and Carlos were entangled in the sheets and each other, but neither cared as they dozed peacefully in the other's arms. Carlos honestly couldn't remember the last time he had felt so contented. It sure as Hell wasn't during the end of the world. There had been no chance to ever settle down in one place for long after everything had gone down the proverbial toilet. And all because Umbrella had grown like a cancer and had swallowed everything in its path.

His own research into the Alliance and galactic policy as a whole made him believe that this reality had a far better chance of surviving, otherwise he most likely would have protested a little louder than he had about Alice's decision to become involved with the System Alliance. The kind of research that had been Umbrella's bread and butter wasn't allowed in the least in this reality, far as he could figure anyway. Beside medi-gel, genetic and viral engineering, along with A.I. research, was strictly prohibited due to what had happened to a few other races.

The quarians had screwed themselves with the A.I. research when their geth went berserk and took their homeworld from them, forcing the survivors to becoming a floating fleet out in the edges of the Traverse. He actually felt sorry for them since from what he had been able to tell, they hadn't meant for things to get as bad as they did, but the galaxy at large treated them like second class citizens.

He might not be the best person to have any opinion since he hadn't done so well when he had been called to lead, but if given the chance, Carlos might have done something to help the quarian people since they sounded like he and the others that had suddenly been pulled into this reality in a way. They were survivors of their own mistakes, and at least with the quarians it had been an honest mistake and not one born out of greed like Umbrella's people.

Then there was the Krogan Rebellions and the need for the krogan to wipe out another, much more violent species called the rachni. The Rachni Wars gave way to the Krogan Rebellions because another species, the salarians, had uplifted the krogan to help combat the rachni. When their species had gotten out of control since they had been tools used for war without being properly educated and taught restraint with their new tech, the krogan had rebelled since it had been in Carlos's opinion, the only thing that would have naturally followed.

Give a handgun to a rebellious teenager and of course they were going to use it the only way they knew how. Times that by a couple hundred million and you basically had the perfect recipe for instant rebellion. There was a lot more to it than that but that was the gist of it in Carlos's humble and perhaps limited opinion. They were victims of another species' selfish need and the krogan had paid the price for it in the end when the genophage was unleashed on their entire population.

Now they sold themselves out as mercenaries for the highest bidder. Hell of a way to go down fighting. Carlos was sickened by it personally since they had been used and discarded like so much refuse. Kind of like all the countless people Umbrella had sacrificed for their own selfish ambition.

Still, he wasn't too worried about all that right then as Alice snuggled up a little closer to him and made him smile at her warmth as she was sprawled on top of him further. She deserved the rest, they all did. He idly ran his hands up and down her back, smiling as she gave off a little moan in her sleep before she relaxed. The galaxy at large might be screwed up but at least they were able to live freely for the most part. And now, he and the others were a part of it.

He was a soldier and always would be most likely, so after some persuasion Alice had convinced him that the System Alliance was the right place to be. Cerberus sure as Hell wasn't and that they had easily agreed on before making their escape. Their pro-human attitude was dangerous, and the fact they were arranged in task oriented cells smelled of terrorist group on its own.

The Illusive Man had sorely underestimated them, but something about it all made Carlos suspicious. It had almost been too easy. He kept his suspicions to himself though since he was just happy to be able to live freely with the woman he had lost in Baltimore and then later when they had went their separate ways, he to die and she to destroy everything in that lab near Las Vegas.

They had both survived the odds and had come out ahead in the weirdest sense sure but again, at least they were alive now.

Looking at the digital clock that was on the wall, Carlos saw it was nearing 0800 hours, according to one of the men that had escorted them to the living quarters aboard the ship; it was almost time for breakfast. He figured it would be MRE based but Carlos wasn't about to complain if that was the case. Anything was sure as Hell better than living off of canned goods for years, and that had been one meal a day if they were lucky. If they were unlucky they got something once a day.

When they were really lucky they had been able to keep to a three meal a day routine but those had been as rare as Thanksgiving in the later days of the zombie apocalypse.

"I hate to be rude but we need to get moving Alice." Carlos gently nudged her on her shoulder and Alice didn't immediately stir, only to push his hand away and roll off of him. He chuckled and kept on gently nudging her, eventually succeeding as she opened her eyes and smiled warmly at him. "Hey there beautiful."

"Hey yourself." Alice replied, sighing in contentment before sitting up and looking at the man beside her, having a sense of déjà vu of Spence and their last night together before he had gone to steal the T-Virus right out from under her nose. She had woken up to an empty bed that day, so seeing Carlos there set her worries at ease before they could rightfully begin.

"You were quite peaceful laying there I almost didn't have the heart to wake you up." Carlos grinned, making Alice shake her head in amusement as she stood and went to get cleaned up. Warm water, running and actual hot water to be precise, was exactly what they both needed before getting dressed and ready for the day.

The Cerberus base had had running water as well, but it'd take them a bit to get used to having all of these luxuries they had taken for granted before their world had gone to Hell. Living with not even the bare minimum for as long as they had would be a huge adjustment for all of them, let alone the huge amount of people wherever they wound up from there.

Still, they had survived the zombie hordes of the 21st century back home, what was adjusting to civilian life compared to that?

They had gotten distracted….needless to say in the shower but they somehow managed to make it to the mess hall just as Claire, Jill, and Chris were showing up as well, alongside a newcomer, a very handsome newcomer Alice and Jill silently observed. Claire was the first to introduce the man, having taken an almost instant liking to Alexander Shepard.

Alice wasn't sure about Alexander herself, but Claire was a good judge of character, and given the fact she had lead a large convoy of people across the desert, she figured she would know if he was to be trusted or not but that didn't mean Alice wouldn't still keep her eyes and ears open anyway. It just seemed a little too coincidental for her that one of Hackett's men had taken an interest in them so quickly.

_And maybe you're being too paranoid. _Alice thought to herself as she sat down at one end of the long table with Carlos while Chris, Claire, and Alex sat a few seats down from them. Jill it seemed was still isolating herself as much as possible at the furthest seat she could find away from as many people as she could manage. Alice sighed heavily, hating how Jill was cutting herself off like that even if Alice still had a small grudge against being beaten by Jill while she was still under Umbrella's influence.

So it was to some surprise on Alice's part when a brick house of a man that made even Chris Redfield seem slightly small by comparison sat in front of Jill's spot, immediately drawing the blonde's rigid attention. "I guess trying to sit by myself was a wasted effort."

"Whoa, easy there seniorita. Just thought you could use some company." Alex turned his head and wondered if James Vega, Private James Vega, had a death wish as Jill gave him a glare that spoke volumes as to her intent if he didn't move fast. James saw it but grinned, either mistaking the icy cold glare for something else or not caring, Alex couldn't be sure.

"Get him out of there Commander. You don't know what Jill's capable of." Alice warned, about to get up and separate them herself but Carlos stopped her with a hand on her arm. She was rightfully worried for the giant of a man who didn't have a clue as to the danger he was in if Jill was set off. Of course the same could be said for Alice herself but she at least had someone to restrain her if push came to shove.

Jill had no one she allowed to get close to her, at least as far as Alice knew anyway. Just like the rest of them, everyone that Jill had been close to, family or otherwise were long since dead and buried and in a whole other reality.

"Let him learn, or let Jill learn she can't keep isolating herself if she wants to function normally again." Carlos explained, having a feeling that things wouldn't go as far as Alice was afraid they'd go.

"I said piss off. If I had wanted someone to talk to, I'd have found company." Jill's hands clenched up tightly into fists tight enough to bend the knife's handle she had in her hand while the fork suffered a similar state. James took the hint at last and took a few steps back.

"No need to go loco. Just trying to be friendly." He said but before he could get far Jill sighed and looked away, letting the ruined fork and knife drop to the table in front of her. James stopped backing away, curiosity overriding his earlier fear as he waited to see what happened next.

"Just….don't call me loco again." Jill finally said as she looked up at Vega who took the invitation for what it was. Everyone at Alice's table relaxed visibly and Alice had to look at Carlos, wondering how in the world he knew things would play out the way they did. He only smirked in reply which just made Alice scoff at that sexy look on his face.

"I can deal with that Lola." Was all James said as he sat down across from Jill, and while there wasn't much in way of conversation between them, the fact she had let anyone within striking distance that wasn't Alice, Claire, Chris, or Carlos spoke for itself.

Even the most screwed up among them was starting to come around again.

* * *

The meeting was called at 0900 hours, and Alice, Carlos, Jill, Claire, and Chris were gathered on one side of the gathering place for officers and their senior staff with Admiral Hackett, Commander Shepard, a holographic image of who they learned was called Captain David Anderson, and a few other Captains and Admirals from the other Fleets in the Alliance Navy. The key players as far as Alice was concerned were Hackett and the other Admirals and Captain Anderson. The rest were just there to look pretty as far as she was concerned.

Hackett and Anderson struck Alice as people that could get things done the right way. It was the rest, especially Rear Admiral Mikhailovich that made her wonder where this was going to end up. If things didn't play out right they could at best be arrested for being former 'employees' to Cerberus. If things went bad, they could be executed and Jill and Alice would end up in some government lab and torn apart with no one being the wiser until it was too late.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you've been called here to discuss some rather interesting intelligence we've received from our guests. As you've seen from my report and the large amount of data sent to all of you, we have a serious problem." Hackett began before, predictably, the Rear Admiral opened his mouth to interrupt him.

"How do we know any of this is legit? We have the ramblings of a former 'employee' to this Umbrella Corporation none of us has even heard of, and from her own admittance she planned to steal the virus to hand to some clandestine group that supposedly had intentions of exposing this Umbrella. How do we know she didn't start all this herself, let alone if any of this is real to begin with and not some elaborate hoax?"

Alice was tempted to fry the older man's brain but she had better control than that. Striking out would only make things worse rather than better in the long run. But Hackett and Anderson had been able to do some digging and pulled up an old newspaper article on the holographic projector in the center of the room.

"Because there WAS an Umbrella Corporation in our history Rear Admiral. It was shut down because of that same group you seem to believe was out to make a profit by selling the virus on the black market, but were just as honest as we were told by that same woman you claim is stringing us along. And if you look at the picture, you can see she's one and the same."

Hackett went on to display the picture of Alice in the newspaper since according to the article, she had been persuaded to make several public appearances for her hand in bringing Umbrella down before things got bad alongside Matt Addison who she had ended up marrying and having a family with after things had calmed down. They had never met in the Hive, and Matt never became Nemesis thanks to Umbrella's tampering with him after the licker infected him.

By some twist of fate, Claire realized that if things HAD gone differently, this could have been their own future back home. Alice was also appropriately stunned since she could clearly see the resemblance although her face now held none of the same genuine warmth it did in the old article.

The Admirals and other senior staff, both actually present and holographic images like Anderson, were also stunned since the resemblance was not just uncanny, it was an exact copy. Perhaps age and her experiences to date had made her colder, but it was still there all the same. That wasn't the only piece of evidence that was on their side as Hackett proceeded to show them other articles and images of the rest of the team assembled around Alice.

Carlos was surprised he was mentioned as having settled down shortly after Umbrella was torn apart after being exposed for the crooks they really were. He was only mentioned in a brief article at Camp Pendleton, having lead men into battle in some contested area or another but Hackett didn't linger long enough for him to catch the rest.

Besides a few pictures of Claire in high school and later college for various sports and the like, she hadn't gotten much in the way of fame. Chris meanwhile was seen in his old squad of U.S. rangers, but again Hackett went by too fast for any of them to see any specific details. Jill was seen with her old S.T.A.R.S. buddies after the Arklay Mountains incident where she had first came into contact with the infected.

Alice had been right to trust Hackett and Anderson; they didn't do things half assed. Even Rear Admiral Mikhailovich had to shut up and open his mind a little more to the possibility that the 'guests' that Hackett kept referring to were on the level. The only problem he had now was that they were over a hundred years old and according to records; they were long since dead and buried.

Cerberus's schematics for their reality cannon cleared up that wrinkle for the man and again he had to shut his trap, for which Alice was quite thankful for. There were still a few doubts to be sure, but for the most part Alice and the others could see that they might make it out of this alive after all.

"I'm curious but I'm sure given how you blew up that Cerberus base that you don't plan to return, but what do you want from us by bringing this to our attendance Ms. Abernathy?" Anderson asked, putting Alice on the spot since while she had prepared for the question, she had still been stunned by the article that had shown her happy and without worry. She honestly didn't know which she would have preferred now, and Anderson had interrupted her silent argument in regards to the matter.

Carlos nudged her as all eyes fell on her before Alice stood and leaned on the table before her as she had when facing the heads of Umbrella from one of their own labs after defeating Dr. Isaacs, a.k.a., the Tyrant. "I take it you've seen the things Umbrella created. If Cerberus got even a fraction of their research then I'd be worried about the same thing that happened to my world happening to the universe here. Once that virus is introduced to a world and it goes airborne, there won't be any stopping it. If Cerberus turns out anything like Umbrella, they'll screw up and end up causing all kinds of Hell for everyone."

"So what…you want us to expend resources on the chance, chance that Cerberus has gotten a hold of this thing? You gave us the anti-virus notes and how to create it, so I fail to see why we should be worried." The Rear Admiral was a bigger idiot than Alice had originally thought.

"Don't be an idiot," Rear Admiral Kahoku retorted, earning him a glare from his counterpart, "I'd rather take the chance she's wrong about all this than find out later we could have stopped this if we had listened. Ms. Abernathy, how does it spread exactly?"

The urge to melt his brain was getting stronger but again Alice restrained herself as she felt her hands start to clench up against the table in front of her. At least someone was on her side already as she met Kahoku's gaze. "It's protean, meaning it can change to suit its environment, making it a bitch to kill. If even one drop of the T-Virus hits a planet's water, ground, or goes airborne, that world is essentially dead. Containment would be impossible. The only way it could be contained is to make sure it can't escape or go anywhere and the only way Umbrella managed to do that for any length of time was to bury their labs deep underground. Even then it didn't work."

"Because someone decided to be an idiot and open the Hive. This Major Timothy Cain, correct?" Alice nodded to Anderson's question and he kept going. "Even that I imagine wasn't a hundred percent since I imagine if it's as potent as you know it to be, even something as small as a rat or even a worm could carry it to the outside and no one would be the wiser until it was far too late."

"Way to put a positive spin on things, but the Captain's right. It wouldn't surprise me even if the one that had been responsible in my world for the initial outbreak hadn't opened the Hive up again, that it would have stayed contained inside the underground lab. Something would have eventually gotten out." Alice replied, sighing heavily since Anderson made a valid point.

"Besides that, the anti-virus isn't one hundred percent reliable either," Chris began, drawing everyone's gaze towards him a moment later, "I know enough about this thing to know that the virus can mutate like any other. We saw new and improved zombies that dug their way into our fortified position in LA. That means as it stands now; it's unlikely we could use the anti-virus without getting an updated version of the virus itself."

"So how do we stop it then?" Another of the Admirals finally asked the right question in Alice's opinion and even the ones that still couldn't wrap their minds around something so powerful and obviously deadly wanted to know.

"Erase every bit of data, destroy every trace of the virus or put it in some deep dark hole that will never be uncovered, and make sure that Cerberus or anyone else for that matter can never use it again. Of course, that would work if people weren't stupid as Umbrella proved to be." Alice replied with a humorless smile on her face. "All this started as a cure for one man's little girl and the company ended up taking the virus away for the obvious military applications it had attached to it. I wouldn't be surprised if one of you Admirals ended up doing something similar."

Chris wanted to slap Alice upside her head for provoking the same men they were supposed to make friends with but he also saw the reason for her remark. All it would take was one man's greed to start the cycle all over again and they'd have countless zombies and worse populating the galaxy. The protests weren't without merit all the same as everyone but Hackett and Anderson stayed silent at Alice's comment.

Alexander Shepard agreed with Alice's assessment even if he himself was a career soldier. He had seen the greed she warned about change an entire colony for the worse as mercs rolled in and locked the place down for their own ends. Torfan and the pirate colonies around the place was also another good example. He could even name at least one Admiral if not two tops that fit that kind of personality that would be quite happy for a large credit transfer to their accounts for something like the T-Virus in exchange.

To put it simply, money made people do stupid things at times or just made them stupid.

"I'd listen to the lady gentlemen." Alex's voice boomed out before Hackett could get everyone to order. "She and her associates have dealt with this thing. If we're to stop this from happening to our reality then we need to be prepared. I don't know about you but it seems to me we got real lucky that we have even this much warning before someone somewhere ends up making a mistake that costs the lives of countless civilians and armed personnel alike."

The room grew very quiet since even then, Alex was well known to be able to lead by some indefinable trait of his character that made men and women fall in behind him without ever asking why. He gained the trust of his men and made them better if they spent enough time with him despite having issues of his own thanks to Mindior.

"I ask Ms. Abernathy, how do we stop this?" Anderson finally asked, wanting a clear answer that was possible for them to put into practice.

"Need to know is your specialty I take it even in this reality. We can't cause a panic with this but we can't let Cerberus run rampant with it either. Tell people you can trust with this information, spread it through the ranks, and be very clear that this isn't some kind of common cold. If you're bitten, you're a dead man walking until you actually become a dead man walking." Jill interrupted before Alice could talk further. "You haven't had to face former friends that have decided you'd make a nice main course as we have countless times."

That sent a chill through everyone since while some of them didn't have family to worry about, having been in the military for too long, there were a few that did and having to imagine their loved ones and close friends as walking corpses hit the point home. Even those without family ties were suddenly stricken by a chill at the thought of having to shoot their own men like dogs if it did go galaxy wide.

Alice held no illusions that this would be a fight they'd win in their lifetime, and even if they did something like the T-Virus could be created when no one was looking anyway, but she'd rather spare these people the pain her world had suffered if she could help it.

"We need to take this to Parliament but I'm sure we can all agree Cerberus is a much greater threat than we originally thought if they have this on their side. Even without the potential for the undead masses this thing is capable of creating, the fact that it could be used to breed an army of supersoldiers if the right genetic traits are present in a test subject makes it a threat on its own." Hackett drove the point home by showing the Nemesis, a hulking giant of metal tubes and exposed muscle that were bigger than even James Vega's and many times stronger.

It was a monstrous freak of nature that had once been Matt Addison, the same man Alice had married in this version of reality, and Alice told these men as much. Alexander couldn't help but let loose a curse at that. There was no way that thing had once been human as far as he could tell, but one look at the creature's eyes was all the answer Shepard needed to know otherwise.

They were still Matt's by some miracle, something Alice had seen in her fight against that thing Umbrella had made out of Matt Addison. In the end, he had at least been able to gun down the same men that had created Nemesis out of his flesh, allowing Alice and the others to escape. A stray tear fell down her face at the memory it all brought back, seeing him like that.

No one noticed thankfully as far as Alice could tell as the meeting went on, although not for much longer since everyone was convinced by that point that Cerberus needed to be put down like the rabid dog they were.

"Excuse me for asking the obvious question but where do you propose we start? The Cerberus files we were able to get didn't include a list of bases we could sack besides the three we were able to discover by chance more than anything while learning about your galaxy." Claire finally spoke up. She didn't mind the gazes that fell on her but everyone had to wonder as well since the few agents they had been able to find were in the dark almost as much as anyone else. Only the protected higher ups had any idea what was where and even they didn't know everything given Cerberus's set up.

Only the Illusive Man knew everything and no one knew who he was or where he was currently located. It would be like chasing a ghost on a galaxy wide chess board.

"So far Cerberus hasn't been our main priority as much as they apparently should have been. Their activities have been very hard to trace and since they were an Alliance black ops group, they made sure their tracks were covered when they split from us a little over twenty years ago Ms. Redfield." Hackett explained, not liking to admit it but he wasn't sure if he trusted everyone that was assembled for this meeting. He suspected that Cerberus still had allies in the Alliance and that was how they were able to hide so effectively.

But he couldn't do this alone either, and he knew without a doubt that a lot of the people assembled COULD be trusted; Kahoku, Anderson, and even the doubting Mikhailovich, to name a few. And then there was Alice Abernathy, Jill Valentine, Chris and Claire Redfield, and Carlos Olivera. If not for them, the Alliance would have had no idea about this new threat that Cerberus had in their possession.

It made putting the Dog of Hell down all the more important.

"So you're saying they killed everyone that was a potential security leak and disappeared in some form or another." Carlos said, earning a silent nod from Hackett and a few other people in the meeting room. "Guess that explains how they've stayed hidden for so long."

"Precisely. We'll do what we can but this isn't a war I expect to win anytime soon people." Hackett said in turn, confirming Alice's suspicions that this was going to be a long time in ending, but perhaps here they'd have a chance to stop it before it got out of control. "In the meantime we'll spread as much as this information as we safely can through the ranks after talking things over with Parliament to be sure they're on the ball as well, but I suspect we'll get their support. In the meantime, this talk doesn't leave this room. As far as I'm concerned, this is classified information and on a need to know basis. Agreed?"

There wasn't a single negative answer to the question posed to everyone there. "Then unless there are any last questions or concerns, I think we can safely agree that this is our new top priority."

The moment Alice feared came when Rear Admiral Mikhailobitch as she had come to call him in her mind asked the one question that she hoped none of them would. Apparently he wasn't as dumb as he looked but it still drew unnecessary attention to her and Jill. It had been a risk she had no choice but to take though since this was too important to hide from this reality.

She just wished it hadn't been Mikhailobitch that asked the question. "So what do we do with 'Project Alice?" Now he was referring to her as nothing more than what Umbrella had coined her as? If not for the need to keep things together, she would have gladly fried his brain on the spot. "According to her own admission in the recordings provided by her, she was infected and was gifted with unique abilities. If we could…"

"Absolutely not." Anderson snarled, hating the very idea of putting anyone under the knife for any reason other than to save their life.

"You and Commander Shepard shouldn't even be here Captain Anderson." The Rear Admiral countered but before things could escalate Kahoku spoke up.

"This is exactly the kind of thinking which will kill us all Mikhailobitch." That got the old man's attention as any slap to the face would have and it made Alice and a few of her friends smirk. Even Jill had to smile at that one since she shared Alice's opinion that the old kook needed to be shot for even suggesting trying to do the exact same thing that Umbrella had tried and had in some regards, succeeding in doing.

Kaoku continued before he could be interrupted. "I wouldn't subject anyone to experimentation just for the sake of trying to create some kind of supersoldier. Even IF it did in the long run save lives to have an army that couldn't be beat, there's a very fine line of doing things for the right reasons and doing them for the wrong ones, and it'd be far too easy to take something like the research you're suggesting to the same dark place Umbrella did in their reality. And as far as Alice Abernathy is concerned, she's off the menu, and if I hear you suggest otherwise again, you can forget ever getting aid from my fleet again."

"I agree with Kahoku. She and Jill Valentine both are still living, breathing human beings, and as far as I'm concerned they've been through far too much to ever force them to go through something like that again, let alone ask them to volunteer for it." Anderson replied, having calmed since most of the people in the room could agree that no matter the reason to begin with, no one deserved to be used as a lab rat.

"We're no better than Cerberus or Umbrella if we start down that path." Hackett said next but before he could talk further, Mikhailovich spoke again, confirming just how far he was willing to go.

"As far as I'm concerned, none of these people exist and they therefore don't have the same rights we do. Therefore other than being very useful hotbeds for potential enhancements for our troops, they are assets and nothing more." Alice had had enough as she finally snapped and prepared to level her gaze on the man.

The only warning anyone in front of her had was her irises changing to reflect the Umbrella Corporation company logo. The chip in her brain was long since useless given it was a hundred plus years out of date, but anytime she used her telekinetic power, her eyes changed to signify her focusing her power before unleashing it.

Carlos knew what was coming even if he didn't have to see the change, and he stopped Alice from killing Mikhailovich, as much as he deserved it by pulling her back before she could lock gazes with the Rear Admiral. The man in question only caught a brief glance into Alice's eyes as she was pulled off of her feet and was forced to face Carlos directly, but it was enough for him to feel his brain erupt as if he had been hit over the head by a baseball bat. He was lucky that was all he suffered.

The rest of the room was understandably tense even if most of them agreed that Mikhailovich had crossed the line. It wasn't until Hackett took control of the situation did things start to settle down.

Hackett had heard enough from Mikhailovich as well as he terminated the Rear Admiral's signal to the Orizaba, making the man's image disappear. "He'll be dealt with on our own terms, but if you were preparing to do what I think you were, then I'm glad Mr. Olivera stopped you Ms. Abernathy. You're not assets to be exploited and I'd rather have you work for us willingly than try to exploit you in any sense of the word. Be it as it may, even if he did deserve it, it's not our right to judge so harshly."

"Was she really going to fry his brain? Hell of a useful trick to have if you ask me, but I'm with Hackett as much as it pains me to say anything in Mikhailobitch's defense." Kahoku replied, earning several similar answers from the rest of the Alliance commanders.

Alice had since calmed down and could only nod, feeling like a complete ass for lashing out like that. She knew better, and besides that single guard in the Umbrella lab in Baltimore, she hadn't used that 'trick' of hers. If anything, she used her much more powerful telekinetic blast when push came to shove which was strong enough to tear apart anything in front of her. She didn't know how strong it was now, and hoped she was never in a situation where she was forced to find out.

She had since sat down next to Carlos who kept his hand on her own; silently reassuring her he was still on her side despite what had nearly come to pass.

Jill was torn between having wanted to do something similar to the bastard Rear Admiral and wondering if he had had a point. Did they really belong in this universe? They were so out of their league it wasn't funny, but then thoughts of being in yet another lab made her clench her hands into tight fists since there was no way in Hell she'd allow another scientist near her in that regard again.

As far as Chris was concerned, he still wanted to smack Alice upside her head but again he couldn't blame her for wanting to kill off the Rear Admiral since he reminded Chris of Albert Wesker in a way. He saw potential for weapons, and the people he planned to tear apart to get them were assets to be exploited until there was nothing left. The ends justified the means at any cost, and that kind of thinking would be the end of them all.

Claire wasn't sure what to think either. She still had her doubts about the System Alliance, especially after what the Rear Admiral had suggested they do to her and her friends, but he was only one man. On the other hand, she had seen what one man was capable of and wondered if Alice hadn't gone far enough. If Carlos hadn't stopped her, perhaps Mikhailovich's death would have been preferable.

Only Alexander Shepard knew where his loyalties lay and it sure as Hell wasn't in a similar path of death and destruction that Rear Admiral Mikhailovich was prepared to go down. Didn't matter to him what reality you came from and what you brought with you, humans were humans and they deserved to be treated as such. To suggest otherwise was to become the very monsters they were hoping to put out of business once and for all.

It'd be a long and drawn out affair, but Shepard was willing to go the distance if it meant protecting countless lives across the galaxy.

* * *

Rear Admiral Mikhailovich couldn't stand up without assistance as his brain continued to send out pulses of agony right behind his eyes, making him dizzy and disoriented. He felt ready to puke as he was aided to the nearest med bay on his ship. A scan of his brain revealed no permanent damage, but he was still stricken by the worst headache he had ever had to endure. Not even pain meds beat it back but eventually he started to feel better several hours later.

He had decided on several things in that space of time. As long as Alice and her associates were alive, they were untouchable in regards to possible research projects that might aid the System Alliance in the long run. So that meant they needed to die, plain and simple.

He had a couple of close allies in Parliament and if he played his cards right he could potentially cause more trouble for the fools that had silenced him in that meeting. Let them plot and scheme to throw away possible advantages while treating those freaks like actual people. As far as Mikhailovich was concerned, they belonged in a lab and dissected for every scrap of data they could get. He wanted his men to be unstoppable against the forces that were plotting to destroy them all.

Besides, they had been with the very enemy that they were sworn to destroy. Cerberus was growing too powerful perhaps but Mikhailovich was prepared to take a few pages from their known playbook if it meant getting out ahead.

Victory at any cost.

With a grim smile on his face, Mikhailovich put in a secure call to two people. The first was Ambassador Udina. What he was doing was potential treason but after what had happened in there and the chance they had thrown away, Mikhailovich was prepared to risk it. Udina was receptive, especially after explaining very carefully what had happened in that meeting, which made his second call easier but it meant contacting the very man that had started Mikhailovich on this road to begin with.

Albert Wesker he now knew was potentially responsible for a great deal in his own reality perhaps, but beggars couldn't be choosers. He was doing this for the future of the Alliance, its continued existence. He knew he was selling his soul to the devil perhaps but he felt he had no choice. If they let those freaks in any command position, they might as well shoot themselves in the guts.

Albert's image appeared before Mikhailovich, and the lopsided grin the man had was perhaps well justified since their last talk had not gone well. "I take it you've realized just how dangerous Project Alice and her associates are Rear Admiral."

He had faced countless foes in his career, perhaps mainly in space but it was enough to get a fair idea of what each race was capable of. He had never shown fear to any of them, but Albert Wesker unnerved him to no end. "Yes. Your data on that bitch alone should have been enough to make me realize you were right, but it was only after the meeting was over with did I realize just how far her power reached."

"She has been known to be a capable leader and a force of mass destruction on her own. Put her together with her associates and it's very likely you'll not be able to stop her no matter how you try Rear Admiral, but I have a way to make her disappear for good." Albert replied, earning Mikhailovich's interest.

"Talking to you is grounds for treason, so it had better be as good as what you say Mr. Wesker."

"Oh believe me Rear Admiral, it will." The smug look on Albert's face was almost enough to make Mikhailovich back up a step as he saw the man's eyes start to glow bright red behind his glasses. Making a deal with the Devil seemed a lot more than a simple saying now.

* * *

_A/N; Much more has come and gone this chapter and much more is still in the works. One word of advice though, you don't piss off Alice and threaten to put her on the chopping block, so to speak. ;D Also, I always had a thing against Mikhailovich when he's all but trying to get Commander Shepard to bend over backwards without seeing the big picture, so this is my payback lol._


End file.
